To let go or to go purposefully?

Sometimes, I see the world through two completely different lens and I wonder how it might be possible for them to exist at the same time.

One of these lens can be summarized as the “letting go way.” It’s the “I release control and see what happens” kind of path. Sounds pretty great to me. I experimented with that mentality for the last couple of months, “The Untethered Soul,” by Michael Singer, my reading companion.

In this letting go way, I said yes to most opportunities, requests, and invitations that came my way, just because. And when I could, I avoided the temptation to control, rather than going out there and pursuing opportunities or making big decisions, I sat back and let life do the movement for me.

The value in this way seems to me that it allows for the mystery to lead. Rather than trying to curate my life, I open to seeing what and how life might want to guide me.

The second lens that I tend to look at life through is this lens of individual expression. I have certain preferences, desires and wishes, and these orientations are healthy and even necessary gifts of expression. My current inspiration for this way of thinking comes from Julia Cameron’s “The Artists Way,” a book in which we are encouraged to uncover, rediscover, and go after our dreams, even and especially the playful, silly ones.

I especially see the value of this perspective in a culture where much of our aliveness & enJOYment has been squashed by the 9-5 work life.

This way of thinking encourages me to act on my preferences - to say no when I don’t care for something, and to knock on doors that may open to opportunities I am interested in. This way of being feels more directive, more action oriented, as opposed to floating in the dance of reality.

I wonder what the balance of these two ways might look like and how we might teeter from one extreme to the other and pause at places in between for the duration of our lives.

Could these seemingly opposite ways of living both exist at the same time? Is it possible to let go into the great mystery while also taking steps towards my personal dreams? Can I let life come to me, show me how she would move me and also dictate the direction of my life?