Have you expected life to be a straight line? Then life would be one dimension alone. Life is many-dimensioned. Even when nothing seems to be going on, much is going on.
Your life is made of many elements. Your life is stereoscopic. The multi-dimensions and multi-colors of your life wind their way ever higher. You do not recognize all that your life is made of.
Sometimes you get blasé about your life and life in general. You yawn because of what you don't see. You have drawn curtains over your life. You have perhaps desired to see only so far and to go only so far, and no further. You may prefer a single path in your life, albeit a hard one. You are afraid of losing your place in life. You consider your place in it your life.
But life is more. You see studies as many-branched, but life only one, and yet life has more streams than algebra or geometry or sine equations, chemistry or physics or biology, history or literature or economics, more than theatre, stage settings, lights and sounds do, but, still, you may see life as a single track. Life is definitely a mixed brew. You don't always relish it.
And this life you are in — you swim in it. You paddle. You drink. You splash. You float. You kick. You immerse yourself, and you dive in and out. You somersault. You look at it from all directions, prone, supine, erect, sitting, and you may think you pose. You may think that life is something flat you just jump on and off, again and again. You may think you engulf it or it engulfs you.
You toil in life, and you loll in it. You spar with it, and you think it knocks you down. You look to ascend over it. You want to keep it, and yet you want to vanquish it and come out the winner.
But life ordinary, and life extraordinary, are inextricable. You cannot separate the threads. Nor can you be without them. You are in the lifestream of life. You are an intrinsic part of life. You are the surface, and you are the depth. And, yet, so little you fathom. Sometimes, none at all. The liveliest thing is your life, and yet sometimes you yawn.
Life is such a mystery, puzzle, anathema, rebus, poser, jumping bean. You forget its simplicity. It holds the beginning of many stories, and most you don't know the ending to or the point of or the meaning of or even the path already trodden. You don't even know where you are in your life right now. Often you think you are right at a precipice, and you don't know which way to go. Behind you, you see the attacking tigers, and in front of you an abyss. Perhaps beyond, in the far distant future, you see a Paradise. You think you may see it in the far distance, but it may be too blurry or misty to your liking. You fear it is not solid ground, and you hesitate to leave where you are.
I am not talking about death. I am talking about life. I am talking about your life. Are you not hesitant to go further in it? Are you not leery about where your next step may take you? What is it you are so reluctant to let go of before you dare leap up to greater? What mottoes do you live by?
I am trying to tell you that there is no difference between now and later, or here and now and future. You are part of a vast plane that extends far into eternity and the wholeness you so seek. I hold out My hand to you, and I will help you across this terrain you call life. Extend your hand so that I may hold it.