Your Move

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's here

The song has been playing in my sidebar all week--and it’s right. We are none of us at our destination, none of us where we are intended to be. As long as we are breathing, we won't be. We’re all here--here in this moment between what is now and what will be. And we cannot stay. We have to move.

Do you think you are happy with yourself? Maybe too self-satisfied? Are you discontent? Are you mourning? Are you rejoicing? Is life turning out how you planned? Has your happily ever after evaporated? None of that changes things. Good or bad as here is, you cannot stay here. You are a living, breathing organism, created to love, to grow, to change.

Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?

What’s it going to be? Stagnation or growth? Rot or glory? Comfortable paralysis or painful effort, growth, improvement and discovery? The last chapter again, or on to the next chapter? Maybe a new story altogether?

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”* But, I dare you. Be resigned to nothing. New Year’s resolutions are gone. Most of the newbie gym rats are gone with them. But, I dare you. Stretch. Risk. Challenge yourself. Do something new. Chase the person that you imagine yourself as being.

If it’s running, bump from a 5k to a 10k to a marathon. If it’s triathlon, do your first. Get wet. Swim. Do your next. Get stronger. Go longer than you think is sane.

More importantly, if life has you on the ground, point your face toward your destination and step out. Fall, get up, grab the hand or lean on the shoulder of a friend. Everyone’s here. Lift yourself up off the floor. Better yet, let everyone lift with you. Go boldly in the direction of your dreams.

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

Sure there’s a barrier. Sometimes it is real, sometimes it only seems that way. Sometimes it is the weight of your own inertia. Sometimes it is the wounds of the past. Sometimes it is fear. Doesn’t matter. You can’t stay here.

Tear down that wall. Close your eyes and take your step. Walk through it. Go over it. Step around it.

I dare you to move. Move from who you are towards who you could be. Move from how it is toward how it should be. Fail or succeed, just move. You can’t stay here.

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

Salvation is here--in that first step. You can’t “kill time without injuring eternity.”* It’s your move.

*Henry David Throreau, Walden Ch. 1 (1854)