Have you ever been lost? I have. And it’s a really uncomfortable feeling, isn’t it? The other day, I went to attend a church service of all things, a Russian Orthodox church service, and I got lost. I somehow I’d been there many times before, but I somehow just couldn’t find the venue.
Back and forth, back and forth, all on the same street. And then, of course, the heavens opened. It rained and rained and rained and the wind was thrown in as well. And I got thinking to myself, my gosh. Isn’t this analogous to what happens sometime to all of us in life?
We get lost, just totally lost. And what do we do? What do we do? Well, my blood pressure went up and I became, to be honest, a little bit afraid because I really was disorientated. I didn’t quite know where I was and then I thought to myself, the first thing you must do in your life when you get lost is not panic.
Remind yourself, as long as I’m here, as long as I exist, I have an opportunity to make things fine. Things will be okay. Then the second thing I must do is gain some idea of where I am right now in my life and then mentally backtrack where I’ve come from. So I know that I have a place I can safely return to. And in my case, of course, that’s my home, my mother, my father.
Mentally, they were wonderful wonderful people. The high holidays, Christmas, Easter were very, very celebratory times. And then the third thing to do is to logically plot how I’m gonna get out of here. How? And after calming down and retracing my steps, I eventually proceeded.
The rain continued in all of this as well, of course. And then eventually, I found where I was supposed to be. And as I said before, it was a religious service so that even added to the feeling, if you will, because you felt as if you were part of something higher than yourself. The orthodox services are really charming for sure. But, you know, the question is not really about me getting lost because I’ve been lost in my life for sure.
But I’ve always found my way because ultimately, I believe in myself. I believe that somehow I’m gonna pull this thing off called life. And it’s going to be successful on my own terms. And I often wonder about the people that get lost and stay lost. They become broken.
Perhaps they fall into, god knows, drugs, alcohol, perhaps bad relationships or maybe even more horrid, they just give up trying to find a way. They get a dead end job that pays pretty good money. They have a relationship with someone that’s, not bad. Get married. Get some children there, and away it goes and away it goes.
And the time takes on. And time is the one thing, of course, as we all know that we cannot get back. I can, in theory, get my beauty back. I can have an operation on my eyes, perhaps my jowls, the rest of it. I can get my money back.
I can lose all my money on the stock market, for instance, and eventually, I can get it back. But I cannot get time back. Time is gone. And then, unfortunately, people have a tendency to wake up when they’re 60 or 70 years old. Hence, the bitter old man and bitter old woman because they’ve thrown their time away.
They’ve thrown it away. And now here I am almost at the end of my life. So a good thought, I think, is to for sure grab the moment. My notebook. Right?
Write in my notebook. I must write in my notebook every single day, the date and the day. Good enough. Document that day because that day will never ever come again ever. It’s gone.
It’s gone. So appreciate the day and have such gratitude that I’m alive. Me, I’m alive. I don’t know if you’re alive, but I know I’m alive. And as long as I am alive, I can affect change.
I can go to school. I can have a love affair. I can make some money. I can travel around the world. Whatever I want, I can achieve these things with some planning, of course.
Because we do have the givens, don’t we? I am 68 years old. I do have a certain amount of money, a certain amount of intelligence. I am sort of white. I am from Canada.
These things are givens. I cannot change those things. But everything else truly is possible from this point on. So the next time you get lost, firstly, remember not to panic. Secondly, backtrack backtrack where you’ve come from.
Look for a point of safety in your past, and then take a chance, proceed. And ultimately, it will all be fine in the end. A proverb. Today is excellent, and tomorrow will be even better. And you know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary to find your path, to find your way into the future, and critical thinking is great. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.