Let me try again, for the nth time.

The Art of Trying

Pablo Picasso said: ‘God is, above all, an artists. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the ant. He never tried to follow one particular style. He simply kept on doing whatever he felt like doing.’

It is the desire to walk that creates the path ahead; however, when we set off on the journey towards our dream, we feel very afraid, as if we had to get everything right first time. But, given that we all live different lives, who decided what ‘getting everything right’ means? If God made the giraffe, the elephant and the ant, and we are tyring to live in His image, why do we have to follow other model? A model might sometimes help us to avoid repeating the stupid mistakes that others have made, but, more often than not, it becomes a prison that makes us repeat what everyone else has always done.

It means making sure your tie always matches your socks. It means being forced to have the same opinions tomorrow as you had today. Where does that leave the constantly shifting world?

As long as it doesn’t harm anyone, change your opinions now and then and be unashamedly contradictory. You have the right; it doesn’t matter what other people think, because they’re going to think something anyway.

When we decide to act, some excesses may occur. An old culinary adage says: ‘You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.’. It’s also natural that unexpected conflicts should arise, and it’s natural that wounds may be inflicted during those conflicts. The wounds pass, and only the scars remain.

This is a blessing. These scars stay with us throughout our life and are very helpful. If, at some point - simply because it would make life easier, or for whatever other reason - the desire to return to the past becomes very great, we need only look at those scars. They are the marks left by the handcuffs, and will remind us of the horrors of prison, and we will keep walking straight ahead.

So, relax. Let the universe move around you and discover the joy of surprising yourself. ‘God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,’ says St. Paul

A warrior of light often finds that certain moments repeat themselves. He is often faced by the same problems and situations and, seeing these difficult situations return, he gorws depressed, thinking that he is incapable of making any progress in life.

‘I’ve been through all this before,’ he says to his heart.

‘Yes, you have been through all this before,’ replies his heart. ‘But you have never been beyond it.’

Then the warrior realizes that these repeated experiences have but one aim: to teach him what he has not yet learned. He always finds a different solution for each repeated battle, and he does not consider his failures to be mistakes but, rather, as steps along the path to a meeting with himself.

- Paulo Coelho, Like the Flowing River