In the movie A Knight’s Tale, an elderly father supports his son’s desire to leave his medieval home in hopes of becoming a knight for the king. Both were in conflict: the father wanted better for his son than the pauper life he was born into, but knew his son would probably never return to his home after tasting the royal life. The son aspired for service to the king, and was afraid he’d never find his way home if his path took him so far away. The father’s parting words to his son were “Change your stars and always follow your feet.”
His poignant and wise words offer some lessons for life coaching as we create a better life for ourselves. 1) It is necessary to stay grounded while following our starry visions…both are needed to manifest the more that we desire. Imagining gets realized only by the action we take to step into that vision, and vice versa: we wander aimlessly without the target of that vision. 2) Moving away from the familiar in order to follow our dreams takes risk; it takes courage to change our stars as opposed to passively tolerating the status quo. We all resist change, but our inner boredom/restlessness are signs to pay attention to. If you wish to stay engaged with life, at times it feels as if we just must change our stars, leaving the familiar without a certainty of where our path will lead. 3) It is likely we will never return to this place exactly as we left it. We keep changing, and so does the place we let go of. However, we carry the best of our previous living within us, and build on those resources as we find our way. We can return to the home we loved, but as a changed-for-the-better person. Our feet, our inner wisdom, will carry us into an expanded life as well as deepen us into the roots of our being. We grow and evolve in a spiral fashion, rather than linear, so even when we come full circle, we are renewed by our journey. This is the classic hero’s journey, the odyssey, that has beckoned us all on a journey to renewal; we return home (our internal being) but functioning at a renewed level.
So, YES, go for it – change your stars! And…follow your feet to a more expanded, deeper being.
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