Shall We Dance?

[Restlessness - XIV]

There’s the restlessness that accompanies the discovery of who we are, what we are becoming, and the hope stirred in us as we wait for signs of our part in the emergence of a beautiful future.

It’s the restlessness of vocation.
Deep creativity.
Conviction for change.
Passion.

It’s the restlessness that comes with what Julia Cameron calls “the universe asking, ’Shall we dance?’.”

And then there's the restlessness that accompanies striving for something else—inauthentically me but fully "mine". It’s not the emergence of something beautiful but the constructing of a present that shimmers . . . but only on the surface.

It’s the restlessness of an image.
Advancement.
Often status.
Usually persona.

It’s the restlessness that is the result of what François de La Rochefoucauld calls the “ridiculous[ness] of what we pretend to be.”

The first is the restlessness of the soul.
The second is the restlessness of the ego.

The first, divine.
The second, not so much.