So I changed the theme on the blog because I needed something a little springier and also a little serene. And it kind of fits my frame of mind lately too. My blog themes usually do, if you haven't noticed.
While reading at lunch today, I came across this passage in Eat Pray Love (page 202). It describes what the author has been told she might experience in time after leaving the ashram (spiritual retreat)
"You may find that lifelong obsessions are gone, or that nasty, indissoluble patterns have finally shifted. Petty irritations that once maddened you are no longer problems, whereas abysmal old miseries you once endured out of habit will no longer be tolerated now for even five minutes. Poisonous relationships get aired out or disposed of, and brighter, more beneficial people start arriving into your world."
I have noticed over the past five years that these things have happened to me, particularly the part about disposing of "poisonous relationships" and having more beneficial people entering my life. Maybe this has coincided with definitive actions I've taken to heal my own soul and spirit, or maybe it just came with age and wisdom. But when I read this passage, it truly struck a chord with me.
There are specific people in my life -- both whom I'm close to and those I know socially -- who I think need to make some of these changes happen soon because they are being weighed down by poisonous thoughts and petty irritations. I also know that no one person can do that for another; you have to make these changes yourself otherwise they won't stick. Nonetheless, I truly wish for them to find the enlightenment I have found in recent years. It's a truly freeing feeling. Now I'm just weighed down by the thoughts, miseries, or people that I choose to be weighed down by. (Come on, you can't think that my life would be free from problems; no one's life is!)
For all of you, I hope that you find a way to transcend beyond the petty irritations, surpass the abysmal miseries, and dispose of the poisonous relationships in your life.
