My most recent book, The Forty Rules of Love - by Elif Shafak, has caused me a few moments of enlightenment and I'm just on page 50! The quote above is one such line that intensely spoke to me.
Something I think that speaks to everyone on some level us the search for meaning. We all want to have a reason for being, to understand our purpose here and find our passions. This subject is highly relateable and as such the book is a joyous, quick read.
Ironically, the story in this novel is that of a women searching for meaning in her life, which she finds in her career as a reader for a large publishing company when a chance novel crosses her path and leaves her forever changed.
The author entwines the modern day story with one written in the 1200's in Arabia. The older story touches on mysticism and the search for something deeper in life. It is the older story, which holds the quotes which gave me cause for pause.
Perhaps it is only with great fortune in life that one has time to have these such concerns. I feel that it is my current, comfortable lifestyle that allows me now to introspect in a way that is causing me to take long pauses to meditate nearly every other page as I work my way through this novel. I assume, that I will have several posts to better understand myself as I work through this wonderful book -- and I hope you'll understand.
So, as I believe in The Flow - I have always come to the understanding that what I see as God is within myself in some way. However, the line regarding the reflection of ourselves in how we define God or in my case, The Flow is an interesting one. If not only is God within us, but also a reflection of ourselves -- one must hope that that reflection can change and grow as we also change and grow.
You see, I've recently achieved a long-term goal of mine, a financial goal, but a goal nonetheless that has shaped much of my recent time here on Earth. Having both achieved my personal financial goal and then also the long-awaited goal of being in a stable, healthy relationship...I've found myself searching for definition again.
I've been floundering for a purpose, a passion, something. Something within me that would point my internal compass onward. The quote of today reminds me that regardless of what that something is, it's inside of me. I know what that next step/place is and yet I am blocking myself from it.
This past weekend I came aware that I was doing a few things that brought my spirit down rather than up - even though they were things I once quite enjoyed. They were things that I feel no longer served to move me along this journey in life, but yet I've done so long that they are "part of who I am." I struggle to balance my efforts to be enlightened with reality and living in real situations.
To open this book on a Monday and feel so very entwined it it's story and to have my inner learning vein filled with new blood, well I consider that a Flow Fritter and am quite joyous to have something to regain my momentum with.
I'll leave you with this other quote as I continue in the ponderous of this book.
"The Path to Truth is a labor of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart. Knowing your ego will lead you to the knowledge of God."
