If you want to succeed, you have to open the door. ~Chava
For me is is profoundly clear that in order to move forward within life you have to open doors.
Over the last year, I have been drawn to the metaphor of the open door. So much happens when you walk through a doorway. Each step can lead to infinite opportunities and answers to questions both known and unknown. Each step is also filled with gifts and challenges. Sometimes you get to where you think you are going and other times you find a horizon you weren’t quite expecting.
The journey’s dichotomies reminds me of one of my favorite children’s books/songs. Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.
We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!
With each step there is a child-like excitement and then a little trepidation as I realize that the only way to succeed is to go through the steps that will help you reach success. And success isn’t always going through the doorway; sometimes success is the journey itself. Either way, when you are taking any trek, you really do have to go through it!
Every day, I am faced with the decision on how to walk through the doorways of life. While I tend to smile a lot and find humor when I can, I also struggle with finding balance. Intensity courses through my veins as I struggle with my own perfectionist tendencies. I embrace life journey’s but I also struggle with many of the steps I take.
The benefit of being aware is that in this stage of life I can now take a deep breath before I allow the struggle for perfectionism to hurt me. I haven’t always been that way and the consequences of my behavior will always be a thorn. In my early twenties, I destroyed much of my writing and my paintings. The realization that I was much less creative than I wanted to be hurt me to the core; I wondered if I had anything to offer the world (even my small world). In response to the pain, I destroyed my work.
For me, I often find gifts within the struggles of realities. So while I ultimately destroyed my works and in the process broke my own heart, I also learned from my actions. I probably will never destroy my work in the same way again. I also learned that I can handle loss and move forward to create again. Loss is always profoundly painful. Yet I know that if you allow yourself the time to heal and the space to do the work, healing is a strong possibility.
Walking through any door, metaphoric or real, takes not only courage but wisdom to discern what derekh, path, is best. And the work doesn’t end there; with each step we need to keep reflecting honestly and tweaking how you move through each open door.
One of my core guiding principles is that I have to find light within each journey even the darkest ones; finding light is not optional. The light, even when it is just a small ember, helps me to remember that there is something both within myself and outside of myself to keep my spirit alive and enlightened.
May we all find light and ways to grow with each and every step we take.
PS-Over the next few days, I will share some of the doors that I am moving through currently. Life is a journey.
PPS – I would love it if one of my good friends would happen to have a good camera AND would like to go drive around Tucson and take photos of doors, tunnel entrances, bridges. . .photos that represent doorways.
the Open Door is a wonderful metaphor – it makes me think about hospitality (like when we open the door to invite strangers in to the Passover Seder), and the opposite – the Closed Door – being unwanted, uninvited, excluded, blocked.
Looking forward to hearing more about your doors.
Doors have become my fixation….so much so that I am hoping to use a door as a canvas in the coming days. . .
A few years ago, I lost my job. I was devastated, but my sister said, “There’s an open door. Time for Rabbinic School. WALK through it!” OK. She pushed me, but I walked through it. I’ve now been a Rabbi for 2 1/2 years and have grown into my position. Still walking. Still finding new doors to open. Sometimes, I find myself back where I started, but I know it well, and it’s comfortable in a new and better way.
Janie,
I am so happy that you found a new doorway to go through!!! I am amazed at the powerful metaphor of the doorway.
The key is being able to align the finances and our values with our choices. And when they don’t align doing the work to create the possibilities in the future.
🙂