“Then my mind wandered and my thoughts became a living part of me” (Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, 187).

We are always thinking. It’s just what we do. Our minds are never at rest; even while we sleep we dream the different thoughts we have. So, what does it mean to have these thoughts become a living part of us? Honestly, I think they are already a living part of us. We just don’t realize that they are. We don’t take time to stop and think about how every single thought we have is shaping our lives. How do they shape our lives though? It’s all about agency, about our choices. We get to decide how these thoughts will play inside our heads.

An example of a thought: “I like that person’s sweater.” Now, there are lots of different reactions we could take from here. We can become jealous either to the point of just thinking how jealous we are or actually taking action on this new found jealousy. We can complement them on the sweater we like so much and be grateful they were wearing it so we could see it. We can decide that the thought we just had wasn’t really that important and dismiss it. Our thoughts, big or little, are what make us alive and living. If our brain stops working, we die.  

I think what Antonio is saying is that he finally realized how important and amazing his thoughts are and can be. He found the worth contained in his thoughts and how life-changing they truly are. We can let our thoughts consume us or we can learn how to guide them and let them lead our lives to where we want to be. I found this interesting:

 

What do you make of it?