For some this may be easier then others, but can you remember a time when you were young and free enough to think you could do anything. Take a moment and remember that time when you could imagine yourself as whatever you chose to be, you could travel to far off places and accomplish amazing things in the world. One of my favorite films is the movie UP! In part because it captures the imaginary and liberating creativity experienced by Elie and Carl as they formed a secret club and fantasized about traveling to Paradise Falls, somewhere in South America, as part of their fantasy of finding the once famous explorer Charles Muntz and his blimp The Spirit of Adventure. It was this freedom to say we can which fueled their relationship. Once they married, they allowed life events to interrupt their dreams. It was not until after Elie passed away and there were threats to put him in a nursing home, which Carl recaptured the I can energy in his life and set himself free from the fallacies of his present.
Henry Ford once said, “whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.” As long as we believe we cannot do something, we can’t because we won’t even try. We walk away from that same energy and life force that Elie and Carl experienced when they formed their secret club and fantasized about Paradise Falls. When we say I can’t, we extinguish this glowing energy within us and contribute to our own “endarkenment.” The more we say “I can’t,” the more we limit our ability to see ourselves doing anything outside of the ordinary, moving beyond the false obstacles and constraints we have constructed in our lives, or even imagining something other then what is.
“I can,” however, has the reverse effect. “I can” relights the energy, which many people lose as adults. Recapturing the “I can” attitude begins one on the path out of “endarkenment” and into enlightenment. Every time we believe we can, we remove the false obstacles, which limit us from doing something. The removal of those obstacles allows the light within us to shine and illuminate spiritual paths we could not see before. Recapturing “I can” focuses on the “light in me.”
Today, I recaptured a bit more of my “I can” as I stood for several minutes to fill out a form at the doctors office. To most, this might not seem like a big deal, however, given that I have been allowing myself to not do that because of the pain. Saying I can do this and I can walk to the farthest office and I can every time my body and the negative voice tried to tell me you can’t was huge. I am on my way there Whether one chooses to recapture the “I can” in their lives or not, is a matter of choice. For me, if you see me floating to an ashram in India, being carried there by a cloud of balloons, on this amazing spiritual adventure know I have fully recaptured my “I can.”