Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The bible, a collection of letters and stories written by real people in real times ends with a letter from a man named John in the book of Revelations that recounts Jesus saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
But that same Bible begins with a poem in the book of Genesis saying in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the waters; and God said, ‘Let there be light!”
Light is a fundamental feature of nearly all founding myths. In Greek mythology, Hyperion God of light, is the son of Ourans (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). In the Koran, “God is the Light of the Heavens and of the Earth.”And in Freemasonry, the Sun is “that glorious luminary of nature.”
Like the sun that moves almost unperceived across the heavens, the daily acquisition of knowledge and information helps individuals pass from darkness to light. But as a genuine seeker for knowledge, anxious for education and instruction, it requires commitment, diligence, devotion, serious study and quiet reflection. It requires understanding that there is a rhythm to you because there is a rhythm to everything.
You just took a breath. You are about to take another. Inhale, then exhale, then another inhale. In and out. There is a rhythm to your breathing. It is the same with nature. There is the gradual dying of fall, the death of winter, the spring with new life bursting everywhere you look, and then summer in all its fullness. And then fall comes again and the rhythm continues.
To live with rhythm requires that you be intentional about what you are doing and when you are doing it because central to creating a life worth living is understanding that you have more power over your time than you realize. You create the rhythm that helps you do the work that you are here to do.
In every waking moment we are creating and altering our lives. Our present situation and future is and always will be a product of our thoughts, our visualizations, our intentions, our emotions, our feelings, our beliefs, our attitudes, our expectations and what we will (or will not) allow ourselves to experience – shapes our life.
Humans are created in the dark, developed in liquid and born into the light but at a very young age that light become imprinted with other peoples thoughts and opinions. Babies do not know the future, they don’t know past and they don’t know present – they are just getting used to oxygen. It takes a number of years before baby gets a sense that there is a thing called the future, the present and the past.
What I have learned is most individuals on this journey called life are oblivious to the present as they are either stuck in the past or in the future, they are either angry about something that has happened or they are scared about something that might happen. Death is in the future, you die in the present and you grieve about something that happened in the past.
To get time right, you have to start in the present and move to the future. In order to remember, something must have occurred in the past to be brought to the present time. We will all be remembered sometime in the future by the information we transmit through our actions and words.
And because of all of this everyone has a different perspective on what the past, present and future is and it is based on their individual experiences. The past is the hardest thought regarding time. We are 7 billion people on the planet but if you speak to each person you would come up with 7 billion different perspectives on time yet babies – the purest forms of humans – are born without any concept of time- so our concept of time is completely made up. Your future and your past is nothing more than something you create in your mind.
You got here today by making up your future one moment at a time as every element of your past was once the future brought into the present and you have been doing it ever since you have been a baby.
There are a lot of ways that people can think about the past, live in the past, dwell in the past, experience the past, appreciate the past, hate the past, be defined by the past or use it as a catalyst for their future.
You make up the past – yes the events may have happened but whether they are important to you or not is your choice. There are hundreds if not thousands of things that have happened to each of us that might be important to some and ignored by others because you either do or don’t think they are worth remembering. And then there are certain things that you remember that seem like a small thing but you remember it very intensely – because you are the one telling the story. I realize that concept is difficult for most to understand as most believe that the past was done to them but it wasn’t – it was actually a story that was created in their minds.
Once you have that freedom from time you will have freedom over your thoughts and you can look at the present and understand that it is the only place that is real and the only place you can take action – and it is in that freedom you can create a very powerful future and a very useful past that allows you to create a very dynamic present. Unfortunately it can take years for individuals to wrap their mind around this concept but once they do it brings amazing freedom.
More often than not though our mind wanders. We may yearn for the weekend or fritter away our leisure hours. We shun hard work and rarely engage in challenging situations. Instead, we watch TV or scroll our Facebook feeds. We get lazy, we get bored and we get fretful.
But purpose imposes a structure on our time that we lose when we are left to our own devices. We push ourselves to engage in activities that we find most satisfying. We are happiest when we are absorbed in a difficult task, a task that has clear goals and that challenges us not only to exercise our talents but to stretch them. When we become so immersed in the flow of our purpose we tune out distractions and transcend the anxieties and worries that plague our everyday lives. Purpose takes our wayward attention and fixes it on what we are doing so that every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one as our whole being becomes involved in the present moment.
For me, it is to see and to capture those moments in life. Moments with family, with friends, and in nature. In your journey to find balance in your work, life, and success, I urge you to take the time to determine where you are in seeking all that you can be. Along your journey, consider to seek to do what really matters to you, seek to be authentic with others and with yourself, seek to not sweat the small stuff because it is all small stuff. Seek your passion and have fun along the way.
“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation – even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves.”~Black Elk
Kevin T. Cahill is an award winning sales professional and consultant specializing in the art of managing change and achieving great results. As the founder of The Change Revolution, this international best selling author and speaker inspires men and women alike. As someone who has mastered the art of resilience and hope, Kevin’s philosophy as a clarity builder is strategic and results driven. Kevin’s passion is to equip individuals and organizations with a renewed sense of clarity and excitement, knowing that positive change will bring about positive gains. His exciting creation The Change Revolution offers a winning blueprint for navigating through change and achieving success.
Speaking inquiries email bookings@kevintcahill.com or call 519-836-7989.
