A Reason, A Season, A Lifetime

How can we shift our experience in relationships, work, and life from one of obligation to one of inspiration?  Being authentic means being true to you – to your desires, passions, needs, and the people and things that light you up.  Check in with yourself – is your feeling of obligation coming from misalignment with your truth?  Seems to me that acting out of obligation doesn’t do anyone any favors.

Choosing love as inspiration means honoring your truth and sharing it so that the people involved can come to agreement on what feels best and serves both in the highest ways.  And it means not judging yourself for whatever it is not working and believing that it is all part of a grander design.

Choosing love is being true to you first.  It is honoring your inner guidance and knowing that while you may not see the “why’s” at the moment, they’ll be revealed in due time.  It is sometimes realizing that while a relationship may have served two people in big ways for a time, that relationship might ebb and flow in a natural rhythm.

Simply, we  can choose to be open to the YES in every moment and surrender into the natural dance that is life, and in that dance, we may have different partners, people, and projects on the floor at different times.  As this lovely excerpt illustrates, people and relationships come into our lives sometimes for a reason, others for a season, and every once in a while, for a lifetime:

A Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or
a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you
will know what to do for each person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON . . . It is
usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have
come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you
with guidance and support, to aid you physically,
emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a
godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason
you need them to be.

Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an
inconvenient time, this person will say or do something
to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die.
Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our
desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you
sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON . . .
Because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount
of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things
you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional
foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the
person, and put what you have learned to use in all
other relationships and areas of your life. It is said
that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

– Author Unknown