Another way of stating this idea is valuing the life-giving power of passion for life. I have been struggling with some old habits of thought in the hope of thinking in a new way. It’s quite challenging because you can’t, as Einstein put it, solve a problem from the same state from which we created the problem (or apparent obstacle) in the first place.

The term for breaking out of habitual captivity, whether it be emotional programs or mental ones, is meta-cognition. So how do we endeavor to succeed in this Herculean task? I’m coming to believe it is only with great patience with ourselves and ironclad intention.

Yes, there are days when I succeed very well in triumphing over my own fear and negativity. On other days, it’s as though the entire game has changed with all the odds stacked against me. What then? How can I do battle when all I perceive is defeat?

I believe in a power known as grace. It occurs most often when I come to the end of myself. There aren’t any more strategies or angles to try. Just when I least expected it today, when I felt I was hanging precariously off the edge of a deathly cliff, an idea came in from an unexpected source and it literally saved me today. A tiny miracle.

The point is, we (or maybe I should say I) truly do perish without a clear vision for the future. It’s written in the Bible “We’re there is no vision, the people perish.” And so I recommit myself tonight to a never-ending vision for the future. I may have to fight the devil (whatever that means to you) for footing but the quest is the saving grace.