You Are What You Have Been Becoming

February 11, 2017 by Charlie Hedges − 0 Comments

“In order to understand the present we must link it to the self transforming urges of the past. We must see [the present] as an evolutionary urge toward a transformation of all traditional notions… which have penetrated one another and thus have changed the very essence of these “traditional notions.” Lazlo Moholy-Nagy

More than thirty years ago I attended a lecture series by author Lanson Ross, when I first heard his life impacting statement, “You are what you have been becoming.” What I took from his amazing proclamation was that my life tomorrow begins today. I am, today, whatever I have been becoming in the past, but tomorrow… oh tomorrow will be what I begin doing today.

Today Really Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

The tiresome idiom “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” is most undeniably true. Isn’t is funny that trite little idioms like that seem to last forever and get forever less meaningful to us. When the truth is, they last forever because they are true! Today IS the first day of the rest of my life! To think otherwise would be to permit myself to press on with the agony, as well as pleasures, of the past. The only thing that matters is TODAY.

So what is it that I must do today to make this day good, as well as establish habits for a good or better tomorrow? I can only answer that question for myself. I feel it is imperative for you to wrestle with that question deep within your inner self. Who do you want to be today and tomorrow? What do you want to do? And whom do you want to love?

My journal entry from this morning will describe my initiatives for today and tomorrow:

“I am never alone when I am learning or creating. As I think about this it occurs to me that learning and creating is what I was built for. Along with serving, i.e. Making others emotionally stronger in character and belief and action. Few things, no, Nothing makes me happier that learning, creating and serving. These three desires do not replace Travel, Work, and Love, but instead lay one level deeper. Travel, work and love are high-level concepts for my deeply innate need to learn, create, and serve.

“NOTE TO SELF: What is written above is vitally important. It puts legs on my 2017 “want to do’s.” In fact, the three might even be the reason d’être for my entire life. As an example, let’s evaluate my plans for today: Create: write journal and blog, pencil out lines on a painting, and help Pam select new clothes; Learn: go to SCR [a playhouse]; Serve: love Pam and Austin, and visit with the Wiest’s after the play. Pretty good day, I’d say.”

It’s Merely a Matter of Choice

Today is the day I begin or continue the habits required for “transforming the past into a whole new set of traditional notions.” What makes it exciting is that is merely a “choice.” I choose to be and do who I want to be and do. I will allow no one to take that choice away. Oh, certainly there will be plenty of times when I must do things I don’t want or like to do. Sometimes it’s a job, sometimes a relationship and sometimes family. But even then, yes, even then I have a choice.

I think I’ll choose to carve out lots of time for learning, creating, and serving. It’s my life! I want this, my Final Chapter, to be the best of all. Therefore, I plan to do what I was created to do. And oh… for all my addict friends… I also plan to stay sober.