Deciding if You’re Ready

Ok, are you ready?

Being ready is something we all think we want to be at some point…right?

Ready for what?

I think about all the things I’ve dreamed about, wanted to pursue, and indeed some things I’ve done before. Was I ready for those things? Am I ready for what’s coming next?

Ready to ask out the girl, reach out to the coach, write the book, live the life… what’s the context for which we can be ready for it when it happens?

Or if it happens…

Is there a difference between ready to do/give and ready to be/receive?

What can we do to prepare to be ready?

Or is it hopeless to consider?

Are there two different modes…one in which we simply gain competence through repeating an action so that we can seem ready to face certain trials and the other, in which we are simply perceptive enough to receive the moment that has been waiting for its time?

But to what degree…WHERE does that line lie?

How do we know WHEN we are ready?

Some may say it’s a feeling.

Some may say it’s being given a grade on your performance.

Some may say you can never know until you try.

Some may say you can never know — period.

But I would say — WHY do you want to know?

And WHO wants to know? (Can you identify the part of you that craves it?)

If you’re wanting and waiting in order to know when you can step off your game because you’ve made it, you’ve arrived, or if you’re waiting for the signal to step up you’re game because you know it might be worth your time…(*Yoda voice*)missed the point, you have.

Even if it’s preparation for something more, bigger, you’ve got to be ready for that too.

So, when can you be ready?

Naturally, you can only be ready now…

No other point in time exists…

Even if you’re preparing to be ready, you’ve got to be ready to prepare, or prepare to prepare, now…

So what do you do in this now?

Well, whatever the moment calls for, naturally. It may even be no-thing at all.

It may just be a feeling, an act of appreciation. A gesture of and willingness to accept grace.

But it may be dullness. And that’s okay. It may be crawling into bed and crying your eyes out. It may be wishing you could be anywhere but where you are. But that’s okay. If you’re willing, you can be ready and totally in that experience.

That’s what it is! A willingness to be in your experience right now. The crazy thing you’re doing now or the mundane. If now is the time you’re in…and I hope you are…be ready for that one — this one, rather. If you’re ready to take this step, this breath, the next one will be possible, and maybe even fun some day.

But if you’re not ready, be ready for that, and be ready for things to be unexpected. Does that mean expect the unexpected? No! Definitely not. Does it mean expectations never equal reality? No! Horrid that might be to live such a way.

What does it mean then?

Well, for one, it means you can look around, without a thought about what it means.

It means you’re ready, alert, perceptive, keen, interested in what’s happening. Not to talk about it, not to relate to someone else.

But, why then?

Well, because everything that’s happening can hardly be replaced. Can hardly be explained in full — especially if you’re not totally involved in the happening itself. But the irony there is that there becomes a greater happening altogether when you’re a part of it, rather than separate from it.

You needn’t force anything to happen as such, just enjoy the miracle of all that you find yourself to be witnessing. Because if you are anticipating being ready for some other moment, waiting for some idea to hit you before you look around, you just may miss it all happening.

And no dead person has ever been ready to die.

So, you’ll never be totally ready, totally mapped out in your understanding, totally equipped to take over the world. But, you have the option to let the opportunity in front of you uplift and blow over that which you thought you were. Experiences waiting for you to let go are ready…can you release the reins?

Only empty hands, open minds, expansive hearts can be ready to act, understand, touch another life. Perpetually gripping, clutching, thinking, anticipating, chattering at and about life only ensures that you will miss the beauty which lies before and beneath and all around you, pouring into you and emanating out from you.

You’ll never be ready.

You can never be ready.

Because, when you decide you might be, you’ll be thrown a lifeline…to grab on or to finally let go of that image you call myself.

So if you’re ready to let go, you get to finally disappear into the pit of bliss…ecstasy…but you are truly no more at all.

It always hits you, and then you’re just the hitting, drumming, vibrating mess of signals and messages.

And at last, you’ll never want to come back. You’re alive. The real You, after you disappeared.

And at last, whatever comes, whatever happens, you’ll be ready for this, you’ll be totally equipped to dance with the beautiful forms of the rest of creation. You’ll be ready to experience, to breathe, to laugh, to live like never before.

No more can sorrow be anything more than a mask you wear to draw out emotion from another, to bring them to the same truth, the realization that we are here to be shocked, surprised, played with, and participating in the playing itself. Whatever shape it may take. Whatever journey you then undertake, it is wonderful, even if and when it is painful. Even when and especially when it seems impossible to overcome, to persist through. It is so much fun to do things that you may once have thought were mountainous tsunamis. Or actually were so, and now instead are hikes and waves to ride. You took the first step, you took the committing one, and you can never ever look back to what you thought you were.

This is being ready…