Daily Mystic Messages - Andy's Creed
One of my favorite movies is Shawshank Redemption. I loved the scene where they were working on a rooftop and Andy Dufrense got all of his inmate coworkers cold beers in exchange for tax advice. I especially loved when he played the Duet from Marriage of Figaro and the whole prison went silent- awestruck by the beautiful music echoing throughout.
But the moment that really hit me in the gut was when Andy and Red were sitting by the wall after a stint in solitary confinement, and Andy said, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice really. Get busy living or get busy dying.”
While others were cautioning him not to get his hopes too high. Not to dream about something beyond those prison walls, this was a mantra that kept him going.
There’s no shortage of people to heap doubt and criticism on dreams.
"That’s impossible," they’ll say.
"How are you ever going to accomplish that?"
"What will you do when it doesn’t work out?"
"What makes you so special?"
They do it out of love, just like Red. They don’t want to see us hurt and disappointed.
But that’s no excuse. Those words and ideas poison the beautiful garden of our dreams if we let it. And sometimes we’ve learned it so well from others, that we do it to ourselves.
But today is special, because today you get to decide whether you get busy living, or get busy dying.
And tomorrow is special because you get to make that same choice again. And again and again as your life continues to expand and transform.
Nothing stays the same. Things are either expanding or contracting. Developing or degrading. Trying to stay the same is actually the most dangerous choice you could make. And besides…
You’re not really living when you stuck in the “in between” wrestling with yourself or talking yourself out of the life you really want to be living. Trying to sell yourself into a “safe and sensible” dream.
In order to really live, you have to choose it.
Today you get to make that decision.
Get busy living, or get busy dying.