Lately I've started to realize how little control I have over certain occurrences in the world while at the same time trying to preserve my identity as a change agent. It has been a struggle. What do we have control over and what don't we? This is an important question because I don't want to waste my time trying to change things I don't have control over. The areas where this insight has shined the brightest for me are my career and my relationships.

In business I used to think that the CEO "controlled" everything...the people, the decisions, the vision, the success or failure of the company. Over the past two years as CEO of Mylinia.com, I've realized that the CEO's job is supposed to be to relinquish all control to the employees and customers to make decisions that affect the company's vision and overall success. Even with that said, they are still market forces (ie bad economy) and global forces (ie natural disasters) that aren't in a CEO's control but could negatively or positively impact the company.

In romantic relationships and friendships I've realized that people are united or meet because of a force outside of themselves. I never said that I wanted Angelo to be my best friend, but I'm thankful for the force that brought us together at Bishop O'Dowd and has sustained us for over a decade now. In romantic relationships, we call the force that brings two people together love, but we should be aware that that same force has the power to take them apart when it wants to. Instead of trying to explain everything, beat oneself up or blame the other person, sometimes we have to rest in not knowing 'why' and trust that that force knows what is best for us at that moment.

I think we're taught to have an explanation for everything as if we're all knowing, but there are invisible forces in the world that transcend cause and effect. We're also taught to take credit for everything that we accomplish, but I'm starting to see accomplishments as things that Spirit does through me as me instead of things that happened because of me. Why Spirit has chosen to do certain things on this Earth...I don't know. I don't control that =)