Sharika Roland

The great thing about the end of all things is that it is the beginning of the new thing.
Have you ever noticed how good it feels to clean up the house after Christmas and get on with the new year.
the end is always the most hopeful. We think well that is that.
That is the show, that is the year, that is my life.
Till we get to the last one of those we always can start again.
I have been listening to Mere Christianity on you tube. There is something comforting in C. S, Lewis’ voice. He calmly says what we all have thought one way or another.
He merely states the end of all the conclusions you might have thought of.
All the possibilities, wishes, hoping, assuming but never really examining.
Dear reader it is my greatest wish for you to consider this. In the end of it all, what does it matter what we have accomplished in this world if there is even the remotest possibility that there indeed after this life a new one that we must live. And if there is even the remotest possibility that there is Someone we must give an account to , because in the end if there is a new beginning then what will it be for you.

In the army, they do not give you options to do what you want. I was thinking how freeing that is in a way.
We give ourselves options to do lots of things that we really should not.
We say Oh I will do this today but then again I have the option not to. So do you think that thing gets done. NO!
Options just are another word for procrastination.
Life goes better with few options.
I like how the army gives you no options about keeping your room clean. zero options. You do it they scream at you and maybe even kick you out. Even if you were messy before you learn real quick to not be messy anymore.
We give ourselves options to fail.
If this does not work out I can always bail out. Yup. options are also another word for not trying hard enough.
The more I ponder it I think the fewer the options you give yourself the better you will be.
We eliminate a lot of stress by having no choice about matters that count. marriage. passing a test, getting fat, being lazy etc. I am sure you can think of a thing or two that would be great to have no options about.
The pioneers were not people of a lot of options. Live or die was pretty much the only one they got. Even if it was so so so hard they did not turn back and say “Hey I did not count on all this pain involved with moving across country in a cruddy wooden wheeled  trailer going over horrible non roads and all these people trying to kill me not to mention all the dirt and where oh where is a bathtub. I really was not thinking how cold is cold with only canvas for a house. NO this is not what I planned for.
They said.l” We go forward or we die.”
No options.
I don’t even know what grueling means.They did.
Wouldn’t you like to see how it would be if they came back in this time and saw us quitting over such a minimal amount of pain. Don’t you think they would think we were the weakest of all Gods creatures.
NO options equals good!

This morning the fog was so heavy it was hard to see more than 10 feet in front of the car. Yet we have to drive down the road not knowing what is coming at the car.
Everyone has the same experience in life. You can only see a few seconds down the road really.
You can plan and plan but you won’t see all the variables till you get in that time where you see what your choices have played out. You can’t see that fire coming, you can’t see that car wreck before you are in it, you can’t stop your leg from breaking when you fall in front of your house,
anything bad can happen or anything good. You did not know that stranger was going to come in today and want you to do a lot of work for them.
You did not know that the sun would come out first and melt the ice so that you do not fall in front of your house. I could go on.
Worry is totally useless at all times.

There is nothing you can do about it. Do not look back and say oh I should have done this or that.
It doesn’t matter.
If one thing goes bad it might be a wonderful change that you could have not seen in a million years. You did not know you would be happy in a new place.
My dogs don’t worry about anything. They could not care less about what tomorrow holds. All they know is I will feed them and walk them and pet them and they are totally happy today.
We need to be more trusting that whatever is next will be just that what happens next and not the end of the world.
Unless it is the literal end of the world but that is another thought for another day.

A friend of mine once told me that there were two ways to learn something/ Listen or Pain.
I would say that 90 percent of the time we choose pain because we do not believe what someone else tells us.
We think to ourselves that they don’t know all the facts like we do.
It is easy to see the red flags once you are past the initial choice. That is because we are not all emotional about it anymore. It seems as plain as the nose on your face.
If everyone else is doing something that makes us think it must be ok too. We think well everybody cant be wrong.
But they can.
This morning I am thinking of the many times people have told me something and I immediately forgot it.
Then it comes back to haunt me after I see what resulted from me ignoring the advice.
If someone tells you something,, write it down and think about it. Don’t just disregard it. People don’t offer advice unless they see something that you might be missing.
If you hear the same thing over and over. There is a reason for that.
You don’t know everything. Especially about yourself. remember listen or pain.

Here is the reality. Most people tell you who you are if you do not tell them first. There is a split second of time where whoever is in charge will be the decider.
If you know this you can will be in charge.
If you don’t know this I will guarantee everyone else will be the judge of you.
How do you go from being up for grabs to taking charge?
Easy, know who you are and be comfortable with that and project that and leave it alone.
The second you try and people please you A. don”t please anyone, and B. stop the real valuable part of you to not come out.
Every person has something important to contribute or at least should.
Every artist needs to find their voice and every person needs to find their contribution to society.
That is the least we should do.
If you have been raised with a person who is always apologizing for being alive then you will have a hard time to overcome that.
It can only be done when you stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about what you have to give. You cannot think about two things at once thank goodness, so you are either thinking of yourself or others first.
If you think about it giving a speech is much easier if you have a lot passion about what you hare going to say. This is because you care about the topic more than yourself.
This is my recommendation to everyone including myself.
Focus on what you are passionate about and you will have more concern with it than you.
If you only live what is important to you, you will project passion and that will project confidence and you will be the one telling the world who you are… because You know who you are.