The Bigger Picture
17 years ago when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, Miss V, I had a vivid dream. On a sunny day with blue sky and green grass, I was walking on a hill with a little girl, we each carried buckets in our hands. In the dream, I knew that was my yet-to-be-born daughter. When we got to a lake, we scooped out buckets after buckets of gold coins. They were so shiny.
The Stories We Believe In
A year or so after my daughter was born, my ex-husband and I got a divorce. I became a single mom, returned to a 9-5 job (I was a stay-at-home mom for a year), got into photography for extra income, and the rest was history. By the time I was making good income with photography, my daughter was about 4 or 5 years old. Just like the dream, my daughter and I were enjoying wealth. Just us, no one else was in our lives. I didn't mind, I wanted time alone to reconnect with myself anyway, but subconsciously I also believed I'd be alone for the rest of my life. And I did, I didn't date/see anyone for many years. Why even try?
The Bigger (Unknown) Picture
I met my current husband, James, about 6 years ago. One day, I was meditating when I was pregnant with my second daughter, Henri. During the meditation, I saw myself walking up a small hill with my oldest child. The day was sunny with blue sky and green grass. As we got to a lake, we were scooping out buckets and buckets of shiny gold coins. The scenes were the same as my dream from many years ago; except, this time the story didn't end there. The frame slowly moved to the right until my daughter and I were out of frame, and far away on another small hill two figures were walking toward us. It was my husband and a little girl.
For so long, I believed in that dream and it became my story. Same thing with success and failure, we see the current frame and we think "this is it" and give up. You can hit a certain level of success, but if you're limited by your old story you'll always go back to the same struggles. That's why some of us often find ourselves having lots of money for a month, but then something always come up and the money would be gone again. Failure too, at the moment we see that we are being tested - bills are piling up, jobs are not lining up, and we can't see beyond our problems. True, we cannot see what's ahead of us and it's scary, but your story doesn't end there. The bigger picture is being formed, little by little, one day at a time through your actions and everyone else's. Life is one big puzzle, if your next piece isn't showing up doesn't always mean it's because of you. It could be because another person in this world needs to set things in motion in order to create your puzzle piece.
Let's say in the future you're meant to make millions because of a great collaboration with a client, but right now you're barely making ends meet. In another part of the world, right now, at the same moment, your future dream client is struggling to start his company or he's a new dad that’s barely getting enough sleep or the million dollar idea hasn't hit him yet. It can be for any reason at any length of time and we can't control that. The only thing we can control is our attitude towards our own situations. Have faith that whatever you are experiencing right now is not the end, the story continues to unfold itself. Focus on how to better yourself to meet the future - invest in improving your skills, keep a growth mindset, let go of what doesn't work and make room for better people and things. Because if you don't keep moving forward, you could be the cause of the missing puzzle.
