Metaphysical Monday: Fate

Last week, I asked if anyone out there had any questions. Turns out, someone did–and she asked.

Jennifer asked:

I have been trying to get into a particular career field for almost 10 years, but it seems fate has other plans. How can I align my dreams with this apparent fate?

That’s a question I know a lot of people struggle with.

We’re all pulled in many different directions by so many different mundane forces–family pressures, societal obligations, our own interests, our own fears, etc.–it’s hard for a lot of people to wrap their mind around the idea Fate, let alone figure out how it fits into their life.

That’s the (not so) fun thing about Fate: Once it’s in play, it tends to push more and more until it gets its way or you figure out how to “opt out” of that particular Destiny. This can be an especially disconcerting thing for those on a spiritual path.

Fate doesn’t care a whit for our wants or other obligations. It looks down at a person and says, “You! You can be used for this purpose!” and then proceeds to hint that the person should go in that direction, toward that purpose. If the person catches on, things are good and Fate is yet another motivating force. If the person doesn’t catch on or misinterprets the hint, Fate pushes harder–though often not any more clearly.

All the basic forces in the Universe make us do the heavy lifting of figuring out what they mean. That’s the root of Free Will–we are free to interpret things as we like. The catch is, we all have to pay the consequences for our interpretation. The good news is, there is rarely just one correct answer.

Fate isn’t some super-specific thing. At least not for most people. Most people out there have no One Great Destiny. They have multiple “check points” that they pass through in their life. Each of those check points is a lesson learned and a fork (or an even larger split) in the road.

For most people, Fate doesn’t look more than a few steps ahead of where they are now. It doesn’t have to. If you really think about it, there are few things that just one person can do. Sure, in retrospect, it may seem like only that person could have done it–like only Ghandi could have spearheaded the Indian independence movement–but that is the beauty of retrospect.

We humans like order in things. Where there is none, we will make it. The reason we think that only one person could have done that is because we look at their life and the choices they made and clearly see the path. But they forged that path. Most likely, they didn’t know when they started where they would end up. But choice after choice–checkpoint after checkpoint–they came closer to what we now see as their Destiny.

But that starts to drift a bit away from the question at hand.

The beautiful thing about that idea of near-infinite options–of Free Will–is that it allows for amazing amounts of creativity. If you have chosen to walk a spiritual (or otherwise dedicated) path, the Universe responds to that intent. You could say Fate looks down and says, “Hmmm… she wants to do this.” Where our vision of consequences and future repercussions are limited, the Universe (and, by proxy, Fate) has no such constraints. And so, Fate adds, “But what she doesn’t know is that this is going to be so much better for her and others.”

The Universe gives us hints about what the best thing to do is. It is up to us to interpret those hints and decide what to do with them. If we hit a checkpoint and make a choice that sends us back into a loop, we will be offered the same choice again down the road.

Because of this, if we find ourselves constantly banging our heads against the wall or in the same situation again and again and again, we have to find a way to break that cycle.

In many cases, we blind ourselves to the options that are out there. We see only that one goal we set for ourselves and don’t see those that run parallel to it.

By nature, I am a story teller. Professionally, I’ve worked as a journalist, a project manager and a web content director (among other things). Two of those jobs don’t exactly scream “Tell a Story!” But all of them can incorporate the skills of a story teller.

Look at your goal. Then look a little to the left and a little to the right of it. See where it intersects other things. Then look and see which of those you’ve been being nudged toward.

Having a goal is a great thing. Having a clear goal is even better. That puts you ahead of a whole lot of other people (including me). If Fate has plans for you, it’s not keeping them a secret. Fate is sympathetic to your goals (unless they are horribly self-destructive or go against larger, underlying currents necessary to bigger things). Since everything is connected, how can it not be? The dissonance arises from our own limited perceptions.

I hope that helps, at least a little.

The call for questions is always open…