Exhausted, I simply posted that one word on Facebook last night. It has been quite the week of highs, lows and overwhelm. Right and hard decisions … and so much more. After writing on Simply Forward just last week, it sometimes seemed this week that nothing was simple nor forward. That is the nature of overwhelm. But that I think is the point. Let me explain with this story.
There was once a lover who had sighed for long years in separation from his beloved, and wasted in the fire of remoteness. From the rule of love, his heart was empty of patience, and his body weary of his spirit; he reckoned life without her as a mockery, and time consumed him away. How many a day he found no rest in longing for her; how many a night the pain of her kept him from sleep; his body was worn to a sigh, his heart’s wound had turned him to a cry of sorrow. He had given a thousand lives for one taste of the cup of her presence, but it availed him not. The doctors knew no cure for him, and companions avoided his company; yea, physicians have no medicine for one sick of love, unless the favor of the beloved one deliver him. At last, the tree of his longing yielded the fruit of despair, and the fire of his hope fell to ashes. Then one night he could live no more, and he went out of his house and made for the marketplace. On a sudden, a watchman followed after him. He broke into a run, with the watchman following; then other watchmen came together, and barred every passage to the weary one. And the wretched one cried from his heart, and ran here and there, and moaned to himself: “Surely this watchman is Izrá’íl, my angel of death, following so fast upon me; or he is a tyrant of men, seeking to harm me.” His feet carried him on, the one bleeding with the arrow of love, and his heart lamented. Then he came to a garden wall, and with untold pain he scaled it, for it proved very high; and forgetting his life, he threw himself down to the garden. And there he beheld his beloved with a lamp in her hand, searching for a ring she had lost. When the heart-surrendered lover looked on his ravishing love, he drew a great breath and raised up his hands in prayer, crying: “O God! Give Thou glory to the watchman, and riches and long life. For the watchman was Gabriel, guiding this poor one; or he was Isráfíl, bringing life to this wretched one!” Indeed, his words were true, for he had found many a secret justice in this seeming tyranny of the watchman, and seen how many a mercy lay hid behind the veil. Out of wrath, the guard had led him who was athirst in love’s desert to the sea of his loved one, and lit up the dark night of absence with the light of reunion. He had driven one who was afar, into the garden of nearness, had guided an ailing soul to the heart’s physician.
Overwhelm occurs when we do not see the point, of destination. We get lost amongst the trees and alley ways and walls. But, that simply forward thing (I am reminded this day) is not about things being always simple nor even forward. It means simply forward… and sometimes that is standing still to rest and reset. It means keep your eyes on the prize and your feet on the ground. We need to get and keep your bearings, and know that the Watchmen are with us. Let us Honour our journeys, maybe even practice that Curiosity and Excellence. I am reminded of the tortoise over the hare, of flow over drive. We can have our vision and keep our eyes on it (I think that is important), but our hands need be in the now. Our breath needs to be in the now.
Eyes on the prize. Feet on the ground. Facing forward, be ourselves. Indeed and in deed, live present, look forward.
That will be my choice. Let’s go Watchmen.
Peace. 😉
Barry Lewis Green, The Unity Guy with Epic Engage.
Developing Leadership Character – Ivey Business Journal
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. ― Abraham Lincoln