I like what I dislike – 37/100

I used to not like the things I didn’t like in my life.

I thought they ruined the picture, whether it was cooked carrots or exes that left a bad taste or a job that sucks my soul dry and leaves it out to rot. Anything that made me annoyed, unhappy, cringe.

But when I caught whiff of the truth that I create my life, I have a direct say in who I am and what I do and how I do me, the dislike dissipated.

Because now, the dislike is a platform, a starting point where I could begin the creative process. How could I start creating without knowing what I like? And how can I know what I like without knowing what I don’t like?

Cooked carrots? Perfect opportunity to honor myself and my tastebuds, and dig them out instead of assuming adulthood meant I needed to eat every goddamn thing on my plate. [Note: I love carrot cake though. That’s a different kind of cooked carrot, at least that’s what I’ll keep telling myself.]

Distasteful exes? Perfect opportunity to get way clear on what it is I do want in a partner. I’ve learned again and again in the littlest ways what really really really really floats my boat. And what sinks it. Makes the filtering process much more efficient.

A slow painful death of a job? Perfect opportunity to exercise my risk muscles and stretch beyond what’s been shown to me as a “track” to follow, a trajectory of stability, security, and prestige even, at the expense of adventure and aliveness (at least for me).

All these things are things that I do not like.

And they all point to two things:

1. An opportunity to honor myself by moving away from whatever I’m not feeling
2. An opportunity to honor myself by recognizing what I do feel for and moving toward it

And this is where it gets fun – the moving toward. There is such power in knowing what I want and going for it. It’s something that I’ve learned since elementary school at church.

Ask and it is given.

Knowing that I’m not doing it alone is a massive source of strength and empowerment. It means that I’m not fighting for myself, for my happiness.

It means I’m partnered with an unseen omnipresent omniscient omni-whatever-else force that wants to give me what I want. It means life is limitless, as limitless as my mind and my heart and my soul.

Therefore, if the dislike is where it begins, then what’s not to like about it?