Prompts: Control

Albert Einstein once said, “I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.” So it was with my late evening epiphany last night. I can’t remember what I was doing at the time, but it was unimportant in the grand scheme of things and obviously not memorable. But the epiphany… life-changing.

I’ve spent my life trying to control things I cannot control. Where did I get the idea that I could? It doesn’t matter. It’s ended. At least I’m trying to end it. My morning pages are about that. Here are a few quotes to make you think and, perhaps, prompt you to write. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

We live in a world that is beyond our control, and life is in a constant flux of change. So we have a decision to make: keep trying to control a storm that is not going to go away or start learning how to live within the rain. —Glenn Pemberton, Hurting with God

Prompt: How does “learning to live within the rain” strike you? Does it conjure up an image of giving up or adapting?

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 

Prompt: Is controlling others a way of not having to control yourself? Is controlling others or things or events a way to avoid how out of control you are?

If you don’t write, then think.