We are here, charged with the task of completing (one might say creating) ourselves.
-- William Cook

At each new bend on your life’s path, sometimes you have to refine or remake who you are. When you took your first corporate job, the one you’d been preparing yourself for by studying your field, you had to fit your dashiki-wearing Self into a standard navy blue suit and give the “power to the people” to every client that came before you. You had to convince and remind yourself that you weren’t selling out, that you were making a living so that you could support yourself and your family, and contribute to the well-being of your community. You didn’t have to let go of what you valued or become somebody different; you just had to search yourself and stretch yourself so that the acceptance of differences and the responsibility to inclusion could become your new maxims and standard. Now, you’ve progressed up the ladder, gained some genuine friends and favor, and last Christmas, you actually wore your dashiki to the office party.

After your divorce, you had to figure out how to navigate alone through the bills, the kids, and the memories. And while the bills eventually got paid and the kids effortlessly survived the break-up, you’re often stuck with the memories of when the marriage was good and the woulda, coulda, shouldas that’ll never be. But on the other side of it, you’ve found the opportunity to try new things; to revisit and capture again the person you were before you married or the one you were during those first few years of marriage; and to create happiness for your Self and make choices that affirm and sustain the happiness you’ve found. Even better, you have the opportunity to create a whole new batch of exciting memories about anything in the world you’d like. Sometimes the old stuff makes you take a long look at yourself so that you can continue your path toward satisfaction and completion.

And perhaps your path has been littered with trash, debris, dead bodies, and self-defeating behavior and thinking, and for a long time, you’ve made it a habit to just step over and around all that garbage and allow it to cover the path you’re walking. But what about clearing it up instead, piece by dirty piece? What about examining each thought, behavior, person, and thing to determine its use and worth and discarding that which no longer works, killing its hold on your life, then looking at your Self and your path without the debilitating stuff there to interfere or block your tasks of self-definition, self-improvement, and evolvement?

Or, what about excavating a new road that totally disregards the path you were on, scraping it completely to make room for new life that will lead to the opportunities and victories promised?

Be clear about who you are and where you are; you may have to repeatedly remind your Self of these things whether that means starting from where you and working with what you’ve got, or creating a new Self and station that encompass the before, now, and tomorrow to come. Whatever you’re doing throughout your lifetime, you’re always doing it, the recreating is always happening, and wherever you are today may look, be, and feel different from next year when you evaluate and move toward self-completion.

Sadiqqa © 2007