Awakening inner strength

Having your life on hold because of a big decision that’s held up really sucks. So I’m choosing not to.

by netsnake

For about five weeks, I’ve been waiting on permission to enter India and attend a language program at the American Institute of Indian Studies in Lucknow. Tough to describe the churning in my stomach as the start date for the program approached, arrived, and passed me by some weeks back. It was particularly hard to swallow that the fallout from the Headley debaucle created a huge backlog at the Embassy and Consulates General stateside and referred cases, such as little old mine, to the Ministry of Home Affairs for “final approval.”  While I agree with the need for security, this all seems a lot of bureaucracy with questionable effectiveness.

However, I have felt so much better after acknowledging feeling powerless, and making the decision to move past it and awaken inner strength. The strength to tell the people I love that I do and appreciate all they do for me. To work on ideas and projects that excite and challenge me that were on the shelf before this unexpected wait. And strength to start cutting through the white noise that can’t help but build up within an overscheduled life.

Niebuhr was onto something with his Serenity Prayer. And my mother was onto something with her personal mantra to me as I grew up with a view of life that was afraid of the unexpected. It encapsulates all the best parts of making the best situations that you don’t want or expect. I hope to write from India in the near future, but until then I’ve made this advice what I eat, breathe and sleep:

Be flexible.

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