360 I Am The Mountain, Not Softened Nor Troubled | December 2017 Tuesday Week 5

Tag Me Tuesdays-#360  December 26 The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast I Am The Mountain, Not Softened Nor Troubled One of my favorite movies is called, Into The Wild. It was a movie directed by Sean Penn and was adapted from Jon Krauker’s book of the same name. The movie is based upon a true story about a young man named Christopher McCandless who graduates from Emory University and abandons his life as he knew it. He donates all $24,000 of his savings account and hitchhikes across the country to live in Alaska’s wilderness. I won’t give away too much of the movie because you may not have seen it yet, so I’ll try to leave out as many spoilers as possible, but the reason I loved this movie is because of the ideals of the purposefully wandering person. In fact, after seeing the movie I went and bought the book and read it right after. I believe, we as people, look with curiosity and intrigue to the wanders of life because we are trying to find ourselves, and I believe that we hope we can find meaning or answers in their stories. If you look through such stories in humanity, I believe the wandering tales are popular because of a common question most of us ask…what is the meaning of my life? And some of my favorite Wandering stories are: St. Francis of Assisi who gave up his luxurious life, under his father’s silk merchant business, in order to serve the poor. He dedicated his life to following in the footsteps of Jesus by preaching His message. He, and the Franciscan Order of monks that he founded, gave up all ownership of property and lived in chastity. I think I liked St Francis as well because he reminded me of my grandfather. Animals loved my grandfather, as you’d see birds land by him as he would feed them, or squirrels eat out of his hand in his backyard. And I remember seeing pictures of St. Francis within my grandparent’s home, as he’s illuminated by a light around him and surrounded by all sorts of animals. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, as he viewed them as his brothers and sisters because they were God’s creatures, just like people. Another favorite traveling tale of mine is in the Lord of The Rings by J.R. Tolkien where he writes a poem with a famous line about wandering, referenced frequently…and the poem goes like this: All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.From the ashes, a fire shall be woken,A light from the shadows shall spring;Renewed shall be blade that was broken,The crownless again shall be king. And the last wandering tale that comes to mind is from a famous poem that Christopher McCandless wrote a note on the backside of, as he took a picture of himself with it in Alaska. The piece of paper he wrote on, was the backside of poem from Robinson Jeffers. In a documentary called “Return To the Wild,” they showed that the poem was on two pages within a book he was reading so the note he wrote, only had half of Jeffers poem on it…I am going to share the whole poem with you. The poem is called “Wise Men In Their Bad Hours” and it goes like this: Wise men in their bad hours have envied  The little people making merry like grasshoppers  In spots of sunlight, hardly thinking  Backward but never forward, and if they somehow  Take hold upon the future they do it  Half asleep, with the tools of generation  Foolishly reduplicating  Folly in thirty-year periods; they eat and laugh too,  Groan against labors, wars and partings,  Dance, talk, dress and undress; wise men have pretended  The summer insects enviable;  One must indulge the wise in moments of mockery.  Strength and desire possess the future,  The breed of the grasshopper shrills, "What does the future  Matter, we shall be dead?" Ah, grasshoppers,  Death's a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made  Something more equal to the centuries  Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.  The mountains are dead stone, the people  Admire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,  The mountains are not softened nor troubled  And a few dead men's thoughts have the same temper. The note that Christopher wrote on the back of this poem said, “I’ve had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all.” The reason I believe he wrote his note on that poem is because it was an analogy for his life. I’ve taken the poem to mean that the masses are like grasshoppers, not caring about anything more of themselves as they’ll be dead soon, and so they mass produce being unenlightened and aware of their bigger purpose. But the very few who are willing to seek and be more, the very few who are willing to be like mountains…to reach for higher achievement that most will not climb towards…those wise people will be like the mountains not softened nor troubled as they shed their weaknesses…as they do more than just survive like the masses. They’re willing to give up their comforts if need be to find the better parts of themselves. And at times we are made prisoner by our comforts. We fear the road of moving forward by leaving the luxuries we’ve balanced our lives upon. And like crutches when we’re wounded they can be helpful, but if we overly rely on the crutch, then do we really live a life of progression and reaching our fullest potential? I don’t think we have to do an all or nothing transition like Chris McCandless or St. Francis of Assisi leaving everything behind…but I think to become better, to have a fulfilling life…we must be willing to leave behind the crutches in our lives that imprison us. I think it’s good to ask questions like… “while this may make my life easier, does it make my life better? Does it help me to reach for more in the pursuits of being the person I truly want to be?” And that’s why the wandering person entices me, it’s the admiration of having the courage to leave the dead weight behind (whether physical or internal) and not look back; it’s the strength to voyage out and be alone to find out who you are underneath all the layers that society or others have piled upon us over the years, and it’s the chance to go on adventures and find exciting new pieces of yourself along on journeys. So while we may wander, we don’t have to be lost, we don’t have to leave it all behind, but I believe we must get in the habit of asking ourselves, “while this ‘thing’ is good, does this make me better?” And if not, let us be like those purposeful wanders who move forward to disconnect from what no longer is serving us. Let us be like the mountains, neither softened nor troubled as we reach higher…not to just survive, but to truly live a life of meaning and purpose. Today’s Personal Commitment:What crutches in your life are keeping you unbalanced from living the life you desire? How are you like the wanderer in your life…are you wandering running from things that you fear, or are you running towards things that drive you to reach for the best parts of yourself? So today, think about all the things that you have been unhealthfully leaning on that are no longer serving you, write them down, and then ask the question of “what can I do differently?” Changing overnight off of crutches usually doesn’t happen, but by becoming aware of what’s keeping you weak is the starting point to becoming strong again. When we become aware, we can then start taking smaller steps that strengthen us, where we will no longer need the crutches that are keeping us crippled in our lives. I Am The Mountain, Not Softened Nor Troubled     Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together, Personal Development Life Coach- Chris O'Hearn Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247     Music by: - Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. - I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide