We live in a world of tomorrows and yesterdays, all around us we are reminded of the past or setting up our own personal Coming Attractions.  It seems that the world is geared to have us dwell on what was or will be, but has an apparent blind spot in the now.

10-seconds ago and before are how you reached the place you are now, that can shape your future as little to as much as you allow it.  Sure, in today’s Coming Attraction world the past can have some affect on the future, all actions have consequences and often people spend too much time on that past when assessing our possibilities for the future.

A misspent youth can narrow many opportunities, but the operative word there is “can”.  It can also open other possibilities and opportunities that the “normal” track in life would have missed.  I’m the product of one of those alternate tracks.

Coming Attractions and a New Year

As I wrote last week, a New Year can make a great opportunity for a new beginning, not just semi-meant Resolutions, but a chance to create completely new Coming Attraction in one’s life.

We can drag the past with us if we wish, but we can also release it to be worked out and surpassed.  Something about either Human Nature or our general cultural basis seems to make “new” difficult for us.  We can be inundated with reasons why not, why we cannot, new and interesting reasons to do more of the same as the past.

Sure, repeating the past has some advantages, it is familiar, it is easier, there is little to no fear of possible alternate outcomes and minimal risk, the downside is that there is also little, if any, growth or change.  I am so often surprised with just how often people are attached to the baggage they drag behind them and the pain that it creates for them, yet they will often fight tooth and nail to keep it just as it is while expressing a desire for a different Coming Attraction.

Past Coming Attraction fails

Like nearly everyone else, I have blown the whole New Year’s Resolution and more on the change meter.  About 18 months ago I finally accomplished one of my personal Coming Attractions, I left Los Angeles and started a new life someplace else.  A second is a work in progress; I am trying to spend the majority of my life in another area, this one to be more precise.

One of the failed aspects of the second is that I want to put the majority of my time and energy into Spiritgeek and the parts of my life that has always been the source of the majority of joy in my existence.  I find where it takes me to be fascinating and also extremely varied.  Just when I think I’m finished with something, some additional aspect comes into view and I get something new to investigate.

One ongoing Coming Attraction in my life is the teaching one, I love doing it, no matter how bone-rattling terrifying it can sometimes be.  A few years ago I was trying to flesh out a book idea so I held a collection of presentations on each chapter of the book I was working on.  While I would have liked a larger audience to work from, I found the worst part was sitting in the front of the room and presenting.

There are always those in your life that will be more than happy to use your past path to either drag you down or just make you feel “less than”.  You just have to let them be what they are, it is not your problem and all you can do is try to make a step forward as best as you can.  It is extremely similar to fear, it is about keeping you where “they” want you.

2016 Coming Attractions

I am not going to sit here and list a bunch on New Year’s Resolutions for you, and even if I did, I am not convinced the likely candidates would be good targets to judge by.  Sure, I would like to lose 25 pounds from my waist and spend more time at the gym, I am trying to find a way to add that to my scheduled itinerary.

Coming Attraction: Video

What I am working toward is to create a video presence here, particularly for the blog, try to turn it into a vlog over time.  I may have to ask your indulgences with this at first.  I have been trying to work out presentation, look and all the behind the scenes stuff for a few years now and really have not made fantastic headway.  Someone once said something along the lines of a poor plan executed badly now is always better than the best plan never executed.

I am finding my natural tendency to over-think and over-analyse is once again leading myself to paralysis, one Coming Attraction is the coming “just get the video done” to start.  After a while of working on content more than presentation, I suspect the latter will work itself out.

Coming Attraction: Writing

This one has actually already started, I am trying to have at least one entry here, usually on Saturday but occasionally I run late and into Sunday.  I have started to find ways to get some of my thoughts and wanted subjects down in a shorter time and in the immediate moment.

I hate to admit how many amazing, at least at the time, ideas I have had that I either did not make a note on and forgot or just lost the muse of the moment because some “thing” else was more important, at that moment at least.

I would like to also restart the Newsletters, the Zeitgeist monthly and the Daily Nuggets need some fleshing out.  The nice thing is that the Daily Nugget is intended to be a thought more than a whole presentation.  So it is likely to reappear on the Newsletter signup page in the future.

Coming Attraction: Current Projects

I am still continuing those subjects that make me such an odd bird, my studies of Sanskrit, Biblical Hebrew and Greek and a recent resurgence of Egyptian Hieroglyphs that started in Junior High.

There is the ongoing studies of Comparative Religion and Spirituality that I will likely be doing for the rest of this life and possibly several others.

I have two books, one written several times and scrapped, one still in the early stages that I would like to get more done on.  One is more of a How-To and the other could be called Spiritual Fiction.

Unknown Coming Attractions

If there is one thing that I have always kept in mind, it is a plaque that a friend sent me years ago that read;

If you want to make God laugh,
tell Him your plans!

I find that no matter what I may plan, the Universe always has a collection of alternates available and variant paths to pursue.  So if the above were not enough to keep me busy, I can be assured that there will always be some interesting diversions and options, and I do admit that I like it that way!

How to create space for Coming Attractions