Clarity ©

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change.
A. R. Ammons

clar·i·ty 

n.

1. Clearness of appearance: the clarity of the mountain air.

2. Clearness of thought or style; lucidity: writes with clarity and perception.

I made myself a promise a long time ago.

We’re cool ….so I feel I can share this with you.

The promise was to only interact and stay in contact with the people that make me smile and keep me happy, encouraged and motivated.  The promise also was to only stay in contact with those individuals that make an effort to stay connected to me. A promise I have had the blessing to revisit and reevaluate recently. My promise is not one of selfishness or malcontent but more in the interest of self preservation. For you see we can sometimes get caught up in trying to hold on to people and relationships for a lifetime that were only supposed to be around for a season. A season that while it was new was wonderful but has since degraded to something that doesn’t even closely resemble what it once was. It is at times like this that I personally take serious inventory on whether or not it is even feasible… hell …healthy for me to remain in the relationship. We sometimes cause ourselves the most pain trying to hold on to what God wants us to let go of. Not because he wants to punish us, but because he has the best in store for us and we can’t hope to even see it much less obtain it if we are holding on to people, places, relationships or ________ (just fill in the blank) that God has decided that is no longer worth your time and effort. Those of you that have checked out some my earlier entries know my creed, my motto; my mantra: God honors effort. HE does NOT however honor misplaced effort or “tail chasing”. If you seem to run into road block after road block, obstacle after obstacle, set back after set back…. You may want to do two things:

1)    Reevaluate if all the time, energy and effort you are putting into what you want so badly is truly worth it and is truly God’s will for your life.

2)    Should you decide or get clarification from the Most High (Preferred) it is, put forth SINCERE effort to obtain it.

If the answer to number one is that you don’t know what in the world has gotten into you or that you have no idea what you were thinking about, you may want to exit stage left. Quickly. But if you are fortunate enough to be currently investing all of your time, energy and resources into something worthwhile and fulfilling then please….by all means …work the hell out of number two. Now what’s important is for you to not let what other people or outside factors cloud your objectivity or blur your vision. Once you have decide on what you believe is the correct course of action, move forward with making it happen knowing that as long as what you want or are trying to obtain is aligned with God’s will for your life you can’t fail. You may not get there exactly when you think you should or it may at times appear that you are not making any progress; just remember that movement (even the slightest bit) in the RIGHT direction is the ultimate litmus test. We often times discourage ourselves by setting unreasonable expectations for ourselves causing us to lose perspective. Please do not be deceived, clarity is truly all about having the proper perspective.

Now please allow me to clarify why I have entitled this piece Clarity. Clarity in this humble author’s opinion brings peace and serenity. Don’t think so? Spend one “Monsoon Season” in Arizona. I have had the unfortunate pleasure of having to drive through a dust storm or “haboob” (I didn’t know I had relocated to the Middle East…but whatever). Now for those of you that have had to experience this I’m sure that you can relate to the unnerving feeling of practically driving blind. Now I love my newly adopted home of Scottsdale, but they are average drivers at best when it’s clear and sunny. Throw a little dust into the equation and well…. I don’t think I have to elaborate any further on that point. But it lends validity to my statement on the importance of clear vision. Regardless of the situation or circumstance. I think clarity is so precious to me because of all the years I spent living blindly. Not literally of course. Fortunately I have been blessed with pretty decent vision. My peripheral vision is even pretty nice (more on that later). No, the blindness to which I refer is of the figurative sense. My blindness was also unfortunately self imposed. You know the kind of blindness where you see only what you want to see. Now that I think about it ….. I had a little bit of partial deafness too, but that’s for the next entry. Yes, blindness…even partial blindness can be frustrating if not placed in the proper perspective. Sometimes the inability to see figuratively, sometimes even literally can be a blessing. There have been times when certain things have happened to or around this writer that I regrettably wish I had never seen. Things that to this day I still recall (sometimes at the most inconvenient of times). Then there are those people that come along that if we had not seen them or met them we would not have placed ourselves in certain precarious situations. The wonderful thing that we learn over time and with maturity albeit spiritual or otherwise is that all things work for good to those that love Him. I just recently finished reading a book entitled The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo which is a phenomenal piece of literature. There are not many fictional pieces of work that I have read that so adequately depicts the human experience. In this amazing book, the book’s protagonist Santiago makes one of a number profound statements spread throughout the pages of the brilliantly written book that speaks to the importance of clarity. But the most profound statement of all made in the book came from the character the book is named for, The Alchemist:

“How do I improve on the present? How do I guess at the future? By paying attention to the omens of the present. The secret is in the present. If you pay attention to the present you can improve upon it. And if you improve upon the present, what comes later will also be better.”

So blindness, although inconvenient at times, serves a far greater purpose in the grand scheme of things. I embrace it now. I embrace it now because I understand that it is a part of the process. I understand that in order to truly appreciate clear vision one only needs have it obscured. I embrace it now because in order to improve upon the present, one’s vision must be clear. At first it used to unnerve me and I will admit that sometimes it occasionally still does. I mean I am human after all. I believe Karl Von Clausewitz put it best:

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.”

We instinctively seem to be drawn to things that perplex us. Things we don’t understand. Things we can’t make sense of. If not for nothing more than the challenge of figuring it out. The unfortunate thing though is that if we are truly honest with ourselves, we at times tend to waste a lot more time than we should trying to figure out things we were never meant to. The regrettable part of wasting time is that once gone, you can’t get it back. Time is probably the only other thing I value more than clarity. Both of which I value more than money simply because they are precious commodities that when wasted or lost can cause momentary disorientation and can leave you more destitute. Heaven forbid if you lose them both simultaneously. Yes, in this humble author’s opinion clarity and truth are synonymous. For you can’t have one without the other. Clarity comes with discernment, albeit spiritual or otherwise. There is nothing in this world more precious to me than discernment. It keeps us from making serious errors in judgment when we heed to it. However, if you are anything like me you tend to be a little hardheaded at times. Although I must say that I’ve gotten a lot better on that front. Lord knows that I am still a work in progress though. However, thankfully with a lot of and I truly, sincerely do mean A LOT of introspection and deep soul searching I have been able to get to what it truly means to know who, whose and what I am and what I was placed on this on the earth to do. I will tell you that once you get that kind of clearness of mental and physical awareness there is no better type of clarity.

Clarity is also synonymous with Transparency. Transparency is such a simplistic ideal but yet so hard to obtain in today’s society. People are just not genuine anymore. I try to get along with everyone. Even if sometimes they don’t care much for me. Does that make me weak? No. That keeps me sane. You will never understand a statement like that if you're selfish or self-absorbed (caring about nothing or anyone but yourself). So if you’re scratching your head wondering what I meant by that last statement... I’ll give it a second or two to let it set in….

*patiently waiting*

*taps foot while looking out the window*

*is that a Quail?!*

Ok...

The shortest possible explanation that I can provide to my previous statement is that I try to get along with everyone regardless of whether or not they care for me is because in the overall scheme of things if I were to be completely honest or to "keep it 100" as my friends and I say .... simply because once upon a time, I was them. I was once the one that held an unfavorable opinion about a person without truly observing a person’s true nature and learning their back story. I was once the one that found it far easier to follow the crowd as opposed to being a free thinking individual. I mean after all, being a crowd pleaser pays big dividends right? Who wants to be the pariah? The outcast. The weird one. The one everyone talks about for being different. Huh?

I do if I'm in the Will of God.

For you see when you are at peace within...it does not really even matter what’s going on around you. People's mindless chatter and heartlessness doesn't even bother you as much. Yes …I said as much.  I say as much because you aren't a machine. You have feelings and emotions. The key is to realize how wonderful it is to have those feelings and emotions and better still not to waste them on unimportant things or unimportant people. I am grateful for the amount of clarity I have received over the last few months. I am happy to say that it is directly as a result of me changing my environment. Now don’t misconstrue what I’m saying. Where I moved from is a wonderful place to live. Nashville, TN will always be home. But every now and then, in order to stay progressive and stave off complacency a leap of faith is required. I love my family and friends back in “da Ville” and those that truly are down with me and want to see me succeed stay in constant contact. You see the absolute beautiful thing about leaps of faith is that they automatically bring clarity to your life. You want to know who your real friends are? Go a minute without talking to them. You want to see people’s true colors? Try to improve your quality of life and watch their response. You want to know who'll be there when the chips are down? Find yourself “helpless” and see who steps up to help you asking for nothing in return. That’s some clarity for that @&!.

But I digress…

“The clearness of thought or style; lucidity”

Clearness of thought. Oh how we tend to take this for granted. You actually don’t realize how true that is until you have had the ability to “unplug” from the everyday hustle and bustle of your daily grind. I call it Societal White Noise. Things around you seem to all collapse into one big blurry frame of reference. The bills, the kids, the job, the relationships, your choices or lack thereof, your dreams deferred or pursued, the nonsense, the selfishness of others, expectations of yourself and others, other’s expectations of you, Reality television (Oh I already said nonsense huh), Social Media, the cat that just cut you off in traffic (oh there I go again, repeating myself .. nonsense). You may even have a few things to add to this list. The point is that there are a lot of things in this life that can cloud our vision, negatively alter our perspective and skew our objectivity. The key is to remain focused. Stay disciplined and true to everything that is within you. Regardless of what the world around you tries to toss in your way. In this humble author’s opinion, agility and mobility are tantamount to success. Your body may be tied to a certain place but your mind never is. Keep your mind clear. Mental clarity is the key to emotional and physical well being. There have been a number of behavioral studies with findings to that effect. I think Steve Jobs – technological pioneer, philanthropist, and just out right genius had the simplest but most profound take on clarity:

“That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Make your thinking clean. Clear away the toxins that lie within in your mind. That mental attic where you got all that junk stored. What stuff you ask? The memory of letdowns and the disappointments of your past. The countless number of people that hurt you. The failed attempts at anything remembering that failure is only delayed success. The people that told you that you would never amount to anything or the people who went or are going out of their way to impede your progress. All those self imposed “guilt trips”. Those toxic relationships. Make your thinking clean. Get that junk out of there ASAP. There is no time like the present. You’ll be surprised just how clear your vision will become minus the cobwebs.