The Ring

I am banging up against the borders of my life again.

There are two items in conflict: my life as I see the possibilities and my life as I see the actualities. One is out there pushing the boundaries of what I want and what I am capable of; the other is firmly grounded on where I am currently and the responsibilities that I have to deal with.

Dreams and responsibilities. Two ends of a spectrum which occasionally someone is able to bend into a circle such that they both meet and can be worn like a ring.

Is that one of the keys to success then? To take our dreams and our responsibilities and forge them into the ring of our life?

As I write this, the picture that leaps to my mind is I the One Ring from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings. If you recall, it was ring forged for dreams (control of the entire world is a form of a dream I suppose) which eventually destroyed all that wore it. It offered infinite power but (like all evil) came with a high price.

But what I'm thinking about is not an object of evil forged by one seeking world domination, but something that exists by our being alive, and something that some people consciously work on while other people passively accept.

Dreams without responsibility become irresponsible; responsibility without dreams becomes drudgery. Either way, two parts without the whole do not have the power of the whole.

Those who focus purely on their dreams can often leave a trail of misery of the people and things that they have used and discarded in their quest. Those who focus purely on their responsibility can also often leave a trail of misery as duty pushes out any joy or excitement which is transmitted as a dull stifling cloud to all around them.

And perhaps the ring analogy is appropriate: like a skilled ringmaker, we are challenged throughout our lives to forge together these two metals (dreams and responsibility) and make them into one seamless metal, the pattern of our lives.

What are you forging today?