“Life is a theater so invite your audiences carefully. Not everyone is worthy of having a FRONT ROW seat in our lives. There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance.
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you let go, or at least minimize your time with draining, negative, incompatible, not going anywhere relationships, friendships, fellowships and family!
Everyone Can’t be in Your FRONT ROW.
Observe the relationships around you.
Pay attention to: Which ones lift and which ones lean?
Which ones encourage and whice ones discourage?
Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are just going downhill?
When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse?
Which ones always have drama or don’t really understand, know
and appreciate you and the gift that lies within you?” — Author unknown.
I have read that before. A few times. In a conversation today, I was reminded of it again. Amazing how that happens. Timing is everything. Change is good. I am doing a front row check.
I was driving home tonight from South Jersey after visiting a client. It was almost ten. I was on the phone, then took a minute to randomly check what song was on my iPod. I turned up the volume. Right then, The very haunting first track on one of the Shinedown albums came on. It’s a poem written by one of the bandmembers and recited by his daughter. It’s called The Dream. The ending of it goes like this:
“I hope that you’re still searching for the start that has no end
And all the plastic people have now become your friends
Before you start to drift and your soul begins to scream
I just wanted to tell you that you’re listening to a dream”
I sat and took it in. I got a chill up my spine. I LOVE when I have moments connect like that. There is so much you can take from those lines… And as an English major in college, my Senior Seminar was an advanced poetry class that you had to apply and be accepted into. MOST times I get it, and other times I don’t. And either way, poetry is allowed to be interpreted. People are allowed to have viewpoints. They are also allowed to be wrong.
Sometimes, we don’t even realize who we are surrounding ourselves with until we stop to realize that these are not the same people we had set out to find. The start that has no end, choosing the right people to be your friends… it’s all more and more clear for me…Why I was reminded of these two things today.
The most ironic part is the line just before these…
He writes: Innocence and ignorance, it all goes hand in hand.
I’m not sure that I’m right, but I hope you’ll understand.
Wow. I’m not always sure I am right either, but I continue on anyway.
We show up, we watch, we listen, we give our input, and we go home. We buy the front row seat to someone else’s show. And we GIVE AWAY the tickets to our own.
Sometimes, just maybe, we should raise our own price. We should build a velvet rope around our stand-by line. We should create a VIP list. We should say NO, sorry, but those seats are reserved. The only option is the balcony. We should arrange them the way WE want them, after all, it’s our theather.
It’s our show.
It’s our life.
The ones who sit the closest get to see your imperfections, get spit on by accident, but sometimes get to hear you the clearest. They are the only ones who can touch you that easily.
Tell me, are they the right ones?
Did they earn that right? Did they pay the price?
Or did you give it away for free?
Pay attention. Choose wisely.
Give and take. Evenly.
Be front-row worthy.
And keep searching for the right people to keep close.
Keep searching for the start that has no end.
And then tell me… when you are brave and ready.
Who’s in YOUR front row?
