Connect The Dots

Good Morning,

Connect the dots. Almost all of us are familiar with the childhood pastime of taking a pencil and connecting the dots in sequential order to form a picture. Such a simple game that when done correctly always yields a neat little picture without much thought or effort. Now how many of us wish life was the same?

Well in some ways it is. We go through our lives creating the dots, some of us do this with thought while others simply through life making their dots willy nilly without care or concern. The dots in this case are simply our experiences and no one can go through this life without collecting a few. The problem for many of us arises when we fail to see the dots for what they are (experiences) and we get hung up in creating and collecting the dots. Dots are dots and without the paths that connect them we will never form a picture.

As we get older we begin to realize that all dots are pretty much the same and we yearn to connect them together in some meaningful way, something we can recognize and put up on the refrigerator. We soon discover though that unlike the simple game our real life dots have no numbers, no sequence or master plan for connecting them. If we look close enough though we can see the pattern, but we must step out of the world of dots and pull back to take in the bigger picture. This is where most people just go back to collecting dots. They can not step outside the experiences and see the beautiful picture that is waiting to manifest itself on the pages of their lives. Some even think that more dots will help them when really their pages are turning black with dots, leaving no space for the lines that will make it all come together.

So how do we know when to step back and start making the connections? Well here are a few pointers: Know that it is impossible to connect the dots while you make them, this will lead to a very strange picture indeed.

When collecting your dots, do so whole heartily, make sure they are complete dots. . . who ever heard of connect the half rounds?

Do not get entangled in the dot making process, once a dot is formed in your life move on, do not cling to it. . . it takes more than one dot to play the game.

At some point in your life, the pattern made by your dots will begin to take shape. Pay attention to the overall pattern not the dots (see above rule).

You may feel free to start connecting the dots as soon as you recognize the pattern your life is taking. Advanced players do not need the numbers, they see the paths.

Once you begin connecting your dots, you can always add more to dots to further refine your picture. No one said you had to ever quit collecting dots.

Making connections is always easier when you come out of the small mindset required to make the dots and move into the bigger realm of "seeing the picture."

You can't connect the dots without effort. They are just dots.

You must have a desire or belief that all of your dots do connect in someway. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

When all the dots are connected you will marvel at the results.

Have a beautiful day and remember The tragedy of the game we call life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.

Peace and Love, Jim