How do family and friends influence the decisions that create your life? Does it limit you? Set you free? Bring you safety? Comfort? Solace? Sadness? Bind you with duty or obligation? Offer guidance. Give you authority or self confidence? Enjoin you to a world of people you yourself would never spend time knowing?
In the Bible and the Talmud is the story of Ruth. A famous quotation, many people incorrectly believe to be about her love for her husband, goes like this... "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." News Flash - she was speaking to her mother in law, after her husband died.
My life choices are influenced a great deal by who I choose to stand with, travel with, love. Some days, it feels limiting - others more perfect than I could ever tell you. What about yours?
Ruth made her choice with conviction, honesty, love, dedication and commitment - my best guess? It was from her view/intention for her life and in complete agreement with her value system. The woman had character.
So.. the request for myself today is simple. Am I living a life in touch with my tribe; surrounded by people who I love, comprehend and support their growth and they mine? Am I living this life because I choose to or just because I wake up here each day? The difference between the two is a wide array of emotions and thoughts for me. It would be easier to not answer these questions and determine what it is I want. Easier to not develop the muscles for any of it and move on through pretending it was not my choice but more my circumstance. Ignorance is never bliss for long. Eventually it hunts me down and teaches me something.
The key in all of it seems quite apparent. Function from a place of the love of my God, of myself and remain in truthful service to others. It's where I always wind up anyway like some inherent circular reference stuck in the spreadsheet of life. Consciously I get a bit skritchy and am challenged by the absolute seeming lack of freedom in the statement "Whither thou goest, I will go" and meaning it. Yet...my inherent character and nature have been doing it my entire life without realizing it. The bottom line is no matter where I've lived around the world, no matter what big shot or little shot jobs I've had, traveling and being with people I love(d) and love(d) me back is my ultimate view of a wonderful, successful life... Ruth knew it, committed to it and by uttering the truth of it set herself free to whatever and wherever came next.
Whither thou goest, I will go. Bring it on.
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That one hit me right between the eyes. As I make decisions around what to do next, where to be now that it becomes increasingly apparent that I have to let go of my sweet house, there is much to consider about my tribe, roots and connections. It looks like a clear choice but it does not feel that way.
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