"Going Beyond the Gate"

So this is the first blog entry that I have written for the year 2009 and I must say that I have some serious stuff to reflect on. My thoughts actually all came on my 21st bday no last week. I realized that each year one should be able to advance further in life than what one did the year before. A new year should bring about new thoughts, new decisions, and simply a new life in general. But what happens when you realize that moving forward may hurt so much that you are afraid to even move at all? What happens when you may just end up at the other side of the gate alone? My answer to those questions and the like is simply this: How will you know what is even on the other side of the gate if you don't even go at all?

There's a story in the Bible that talks about a small group of men that had lepracy disease. They had been traveling for quite sometime until they got so tired that they just sat at the temple. After doing such, one of the men simply propsed a thought: why bother just sitting here waiting to die? Now, that may seem to some to be a simple question, but it's a question that brings about many thoughts. Sometimes we as a people have a tendency to just sit and wait for things to happen simply because that is what is most comfortable. Rather than go through the gates of the timple, we'd rather just sit at the steps and wait. My question is, wait for what and how long?

Oftentimes, when we see that the majority is doing something or the majority decides on a common thing, it will be accepted and become the general norm. But haven't norms been broken? Haven't there been so many people throughout history who refused to stand at the gate like everyone else and become what we call innovators? Why bother just sitting at the gate and letting time pass? Why not just go through the gate and see what the temple holds?

We may tell ourselves that since the steps is where everyone else is sitting, maybe we should do the same thing. We may just grow to accept that maybe the steps is the best place to sit. It's comfortable to sit there rather than just get up and walk. Some may grow so tired of walking that the steps is just the place to be. But my question for those step-sitters is this: if something is already being done by many, why bother reinventing the wheel? Why not start a new trend? Why not step out of your own comfort zone and go further? It can't be that hard. What have you got to lose anyway, you've already come that far.