Your real life begins as a search for purpose and meaning and hope, and it unfolds beautifully and powerfully when you start taking action in the direction of your true path without apologies or fear. Know what you want. Know what you are living for. Find it in a movie or a movement, a book or a meeting or a group, a cause or a small child wrapped in your arms, but find it and be sure about it. Initially the cause can be no greater or grander than staying alive, but no matter what, begin with the cause you have and embrace it fiercely. Let everything you do be for that purpose, and live your truth. Laugh, cry, and rage when you have to, and live with all your might.
Someone I love very much has made the decision to go to AA, and in doing so she may save us both. We were dying together in a fog of rage and anger, cold and not seeing anything clearly, and that one loving hopeful act brought us to a place where the future seems possible and the heart finds a way out of misery and regret. I am so grateful for this new beginning that I don't want to curse it by saying too much. But watching someone you love reach out in hope instead of striking back in anger, it fills me with joy. I know I am strong enough to discard anything, but I didn't want to face the awful test of discarding everything and being alone. I stood my ground. And someone I love very much has honored me by standing hers and choosing hope.
So today I am very happy, and I celebrated with a good night's sleep.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
3 comments:
Dad--
Sounds good! Lots of luck to you. We miss you here, good golfing weather today. Ethan and Tom are playing living room baseball. It's crazy. He's getting better (both of them). We are supposed to be grocery shopping but the boys keep saying one more ball Mom. How am I supposed to argue with that?
Me
Steff--
Still no Lizzie? She has everyone's attention--what is she waiting for?
Ah, living room baseball. There is no greater joy for a small boy than a daddy who will play with him, whether it's hot wheels or living room sports. I hit balls and chipped and putted on Saturday--it was great to get out there. Ethan will probably be a fun golf partner.
Sounds like you are all enjoying your paternity leave. Don't let the boys sneak too many snacks into the grocery cart.
Love,
Dad
Dad--
Ethan is a pretty great all sports partner. We haven't found one that he doesn't like yet. Dad and Ethan won and I don't even remember when we finally went to the store, but they won there too! The cart was filled with all sorts of boy related grossness.
Me
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