How to Be in Two Places at Once: Straddling the Fence Between Survival and Creativity
Have you ever tried to be in two places at once? It’s pretty tricky. Maybe you were invited to two social events on the same night and you wanted so badly to attend both. You probably found yourself rushing around, looking at the clock, trying to gauge how much longer you could stay at one and still leave plenty of time to get to the other.
There are other ways we sometimes find ourselves trying to live in two places. One place we’re very familiar with is called the here and now. This is where the bills are due, the oil needs changing, your email inbox grows exponentially, and the Internet sometimes goes out while the router resets itself.
In the here and now, dust bunnies collect on every surface and under every piece of furniture, even when you feel like you just dusted the day before. Taxes must be paid. People are not always happy with you. You say the wrong thing and more people are not happy with you.
You have to choose the right foods to eat. The right ways to move your body, the right ways to cover your body, the right things to do with your body and the way in which you present your body to the world (including the words you say with your mouth).
You have to think about all these things in the here and now plus a million more.
But there is another land. One that we might visit and even straddle the fence in (if we’re lucky). It is called the world of possibilities.
In the world of possibilities anything is possible. Everything is there because anything is possible in this world. If the here and now were able to be contained in a shoe box, the world of possibilities would be the ocean.
Sometimes it feels like we’re so stuck in our own little shoe boxes with our own little trinkets and things that we’ve collected, including our perspectives and the baggage that we carry that we really do forget that there is a whole big ocean of possibility out there.
And it’s all ours for the taking. This is true no matter what your calling or purpose is in life. There’s enough good stuff to go around for all of us. Enough possibility for the deepest darkest secret dreams of our hearts to come true.
Of course every possibility is not meant for us. But that’s okay because there are plenty of wonderful things that were meant for us. All of these wonderful things are just bobbing along out there in the ocean in the world of possibility and we get to jump in and collect them.
But while we’re stuck, focused on everything happening in our little shoe boxes, it can be hard to remember that other world is still out there.
There are some people who live only in the shoe box, always focused on the here and now, always striving for their five year plan or their 10 year plan, or just making it through this one day, til 5 o’clock quitting time. Surviving.
And if that’s you, please don’t beat yourself up. It’s me too. Sometimes.
[bctt tweet=”If we just stay in one world all the time then we miss out on what the other world can offer us.” username=”thesouthernc”]
But what if so much of what we could experience would be different if we were willing to embrace the idea of possibility?
In the world of possibility, we can be our true selves.
Do we have to straddle the fence? I feel like in order to have dual citizenship, we must really exist some in both worlds. Because if we just stay in one world all the time then we miss out on what the other world can offer us.
Completely neglecting the here and now doesn’t seem like the best option, because that might mean the bills don’t get paid or there are no clean clothes to wear, or plaque builds up because we haven’t been to the dentist in ten years.
But I like to think that completely neglecting the world of possibilities can be even more detrimental to us. Especially if you’re a creative person who wants to leave your mark on the world. If you’re just stuck inside the shoe box rolling a little marble around in your hand because it feels comfortable and you recognize it and it feels safe and secure, then you’re probably going to miss out on all the things that were meant for you. And the world will miss out on all the wonderful things you have to offer.
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LOVED this post, Kate! You always seem to post something timely just when I need to read/hear it! xoxo