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The Single Most Important Question...

By Stan Dale

Stan Dale is founder of the Human Awareness Institute, an organization dedicated to creating loving, lasting relationships filled with intimacy, passion, and respect. Find HAI listed in Singles & Relationships.

 

The question that we all need to ask in order to grow is — What is Possible? Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Yet this is probably the single most difficult question you can ever ask yourself. What makes anything difficult is:

  1. We think it can't be done.
  2. We have no experience in that particular area.
  3. FEAR!

An amazing thing about human beings is that we really have only two choices. One is to grow, the second is not to grow. Both are viable choices, and although they don't appear to be choices to the average person, they are indeed choices. Even the choice not to make a choice is a choice. However, the question about growing really boils down to two other questions:

  1. Do you want to LIVE?
  2. Do you just want to exist?

The difference between living and existing could be compared to bright, bubbly champagne just after the cork has been popped, and dead, flat champagne that has been sitting around for about a week. When you are ALIVE you are bubbling over with enthusiasm, a zest for living. Things are almost always "Coming Up Roses" for you, and every breath you take produces rainbows. On the other hand, mere existing is like living in a grey fog with quicksand grabbing at your feet. Unfortunately, all too many of us exist in the latter because we don't know about the former. Also, many people are afraid to find out about LIVING because they think that it would be like opening a "Pandora's box" filled with all sorts of horrendous things. So they stay away from people and programs where growth is possible and the joy of LIVING is promoted.

I have great empathy for those who choose to live in the fog rather than the light, but there isn't much anyone can do to change their minds that wouldn't be violating their sovereignty. I have that empathy because I used to be one of those people who chose fog over light because it was safe and familiar. I knew my way around in the fog. I didn't know anything about light.

This article is designed for both "Light Dwellers" and "Fog People." I know both sides intimately. I have found out that living in the light is where the SPIRIT lives. That's why some people bubble over so, and why they have so much energy. That's where the energy originates in humans. However, even people who live in the spirit need a flashlight every so often to find the path. Probably people who are Light Dwellers need a so-called flashlight more than people who are stuck in the fog because when you're choosing to risk and live you are liable to trip and fall more than if you are safely tucked away in a cocoon of foggy goo. That's why so many people choose fog rather than living. They are afraid of being hurt.

For those of you who are afraid of being hurt, let me assure you that the pain of living is infinitely less painful than being stuck in the goo. As a matter of fact, the pain of living is a paradox. The more pain, the more joy. The more joy, the more you live. The more you live, the more the possibility of pain. And on it goes. Once again, the choice is yours.

To assist you in making a choice, let's go back to the beginning of this article, and the question, "What Is Possible?" In the mere process of uttering those words you create a context for the "impossible" to become possible, and for the "unthinkable" to be thinkable. It's like saying "Shazam!" and having magic happen. A perfect example is the expansion and growth of the Human Awareness Institute.

The Human Awareness Institute was an unformed idea in my head: a series of workshops and a meeting once-a-month. The minute I asked the question, "I wonder What's Possible?" "Shazam!" Magic took place. More than a dozen little "genies" showed up and formed themselves into a Board of Directors. "Board of Directors!", I exclaimed. "Who needs a Board of Directors?" "You do," they said, and out came more than a dozen "flashlights" to light the path. The Human Awareness Institute has become so much more than I ever imagined. We are circling the globe with our special brand of love, kindness and awareness. It is enriching many people's lives and "Creating a World Where Everyone Wins." All that, because I dared to ask, "What Is Possible?"

OOPS, I did it again! Okay, Universe, what's next?

 

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