It Is What It Is…

As a burgeoning human being, you have this wonderful capacity not only to experience your life as it is, but also to imagine what your life might become in the future. Being marvelously unique, your awareness comes from within with all of the associations and connections you can muster based almost exclusively from your own perspective. Things that are labeled good or bad to you, may represent an entirely different meaning to someone else. For this reason, it can be difficult at times to perceive things as they really are absent your own internal persuasions. Thus, in order to make any meaningful changes, it necessitates you first see things clearly and accurately minus all of the meanings you are likely assigning to those things. Truly, when it comes to improving, repairing, healing or restoring any good thing, you first have to see it and accept it for what it is. It is what it is…

Calling a thing a thing, as a famous lady once remarked, is at the foundation of problem solving any situation you may find yourself in. Said another way, you cannot fix what you refuse to acknowledge. Ignoring problems, glossing over bad situations, refusing to accept that something is not right, only leads towards difficulties and unpleasant times persisting. If we are honest, we already know when circumstances have gone south on us. We know when a good thing has lost its goodness. Deep down our hearts already know when there’s a disturbance; a misconnect; impediments and obstacles. The reason we fail to act on the obvious is because we desperately cleave to another narrative; one where things are still okay even though we know they are not okay. A narrative that assures us nothing has changed but instead has simply become familiar. And, onward we trudge, inching ahead, hoping something or someone will make it all right. Our failure is in being afraid to see things as they already are. It is what it is.

It does not require a PhD or some other form of higher learning to recognize that nothing in life is static. Everything is ever in a continual state of flux. Living things are either growing or they are dying, but they are not remaining the same. Change isn’t something to be afraid of as everything changes in one capacity or another. They key in successfully navigating the change is found in our willingness to observe what actually is and then seek to make improvements or repairs or whatever the situation calls for at the time. People change sometimes for the good, sometimes for the not so good. Circumstances change. Conditions change. You cannot apply the logic of ten years ago to the scenarios of today. Neither can you compare yourself of today to yourself of the past as the variables of today, though eerily similar, are not the same. Time and chance have happened to them all. For this reason, the only plausible way to endeavor is by addressing your life experiences now in the thousand eyed present, not in the single eyed view of the past. It doesn’t matter what you did before, what matters is what you do now. It doesn’t matter what used to work, it matters what works now. It doesn’t matter who you used to be, it matters who you are today. Your problem is what it is today and the only time to solve it is today. It is what it is…

If you would like God to heal your broken arm, you must first acknowledge that your arm is broken. If you want God to heal your broken heart, you have to admit to yourself that your heart is broken. It’s not so much that over time things break, but rather that you are honest enough to accept what is, not what used to be. It is not being positive or renewing your mind to lie to yourself about your reality. Renewing your mind, like being positive, is about applying God’s solutions to the things that plague you, those things that have become broken over time. How foolish it is to apply some cheery resolve to a problem rather than to see it and say it and determine within yourself to work it out. Insisting that you already know what to do or what you cannot do based on some tired, former assessment of a situation that has already changed a hundred times, leads only to a futile resolve to stay stuck, mired in some vague notion formed in the past. It is what it is…

Solving relationship problems, solving financial problems, solving achievement problems, solving health problems, indeed solving spiritual problems requires that you finally allow yourself to see it for what it is. It doesn’t matter if it is your fault or someone else’s fault, the world’s fault or the devil’s fault. What matters most is that you stop being afraid to admit something has gone wrong and then taking the steps to make it right. Why carry with you all of your former excuses and justifications, your rationales and myriad former failed attempts? Why insist on cleaving to a bad strategy that didn’t work before and isn’t working now? Why? Why not, while fully accepting and acknowledging the problem, try to see the situation through fresh eyes, with clarity, focused not on continuing to be right or begrudgingly absolving yourself of any responsibility and choose not rather to locate the remedy, no matter the cost. Sometimes the solutions are right there in front of you, patiently waiting for you to release what was in favor of what is. It is what it is…

At the end of the day, we all want to be happy, to be fulfilled, to be blessed. We all want deepening and enduring love. We all want to succeed and to prosper and to live life to the absolute full. This life is far too short to continue tripping over our own selves and our own stubborn refusal to see things for what they really are. With God’s help we can solve anything, heal anything or recover anything that has become broken or damaged over time.

It is what it is, but it doesn’t have to stay that way…

Just some good thoughts…