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Posts from the ‘Beginnings’ Category

Filled and Overflowing

“You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted. Begin again the story of your life.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Lives of the Heart

“Empty and filled,
like the curling half-light of morning,
in which everything is still possible and so why not.

Filled and empty,
like the curling half-light of evening,
in which everything now is finished and so why not.

Beloved, what can be, what was,
will be taken from us.
I have disappointed.
I am sorry. I knew no better.

A root seeks water.
Tenderness only breaks open the earth.
This morning, out the window,
the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.”― Jane Hirshfield

New beginnings
Fresh starts
Emptied to filled, overflowing
Hope, joy, delight
Color, fragrance, beauty
Borne of winter spilling fully into spring
Tenderness breaking open and through
New beginnings

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.”― Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Sparkle and Bloom

“Man’s main task is to give birth to himself. ”― Erich Fromm

“You don’t need anyone else’s permission to be happy, to pursue your passions, express yourself more, or to live the life you’ve always dreamed of. The only permission you need is your own.”― Mel Robbins, The Let Them Theory

How far you’ve come, not how far to go
Where you are, not where you thought you would be
Roads taken, not taken, yet to take
Pause, reflection, anticipation, then motion
Unfolding, becoming, unfurling
Try new things
Wander off path
Plant seeds
Harvest beauty
Sparkle and bloom, right where you’re planted.

“You are your best thing.”― Toni Morrison, Beloved

Wildflower Spinning

“God is not a technician. God is an Artist. This is the God who made you. The same God who lives inside of you. He comes into us, then comes out of us, in a million little ways. That’s why there’s freedom, even in the blah. Hope, even in the dark. Love, even in the fear. Trust, even as we face our critics. And believe in the midst of all that? It feels like strength and depth and wildflower spinning; it feels risky and brave and underdog winning. It feels like redemption. It feels like art.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“As we stand at new beginnings and grieve those long goodbyes, teach us what it means to hold on to what we need for the journey and gently let the rest go. Father, you bring new mercies every morning and give us the grace to start over as many times as we might need. Keep pace with us as we learn to keep pace with you. Thank you for not rolling your eyes when we find ourselves here again. Give us the courage to pick what we like and the patience to see how it grows.”― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

A year ago today, I “officially” started my business KP Connections LLC.
Name, legal structure, business model, plan and general direction.
The decision, tipping point, crossing the threshold.
Moving from the hallway between rooms to entering a new room.
Many steps before the decision to leap, one step to leap.
Many steps after and continue to be revealed to this day, tomorrow, the next day too.
It would be months before I announced in July and only a handful of people knew at this point.
Walking beside me through the examination, contemplation, exploration, shaping.
Deeply grateful for those companions, questioners, cheerleaders.
But we ultimately make decisions for our life alone.
Little and big.
Owning that gives us power and responsibility.
To stay, to go, to tolerate, to accept, to reject, to stagnate, to grow, to keep changing, to be changed in the process.
Not deciding is deciding.
We put too much weight on decisions, as if it’s the only step to be made.
Mistakes and missteps guaranteed.
Allowing the path to unfold in the walking out daily is the journey.
It’s the point.
We don’t need everything figured out to start, but we do need to start, taking a step at a time.
To aim, work, go in a direction, follow signs, discern signals, see patterns, pivot when necessary, stay the course, fall, rise, pause, rest, start again and keep moving.
Trusting the process, enjoying the journey.
Work to get to the thresholds before, faith to cross over, more work and trust to walk it out daily with curiosity, enthusiasm, joy.
What we make of it but more importantly what it is making of us.
Many lessons along the way.
What to not do again, what to focus on, what to explore, what to not do at all.
Imperfectly and wonderfully where I belong.
Grateful, awake, unfolding and unfurling.
Still learning, growing, connecting, collaborating, honing, crafting, diversifying, focusing, shaping, creating, making.
Wildflower spinning.

“And so the meaning of our lives is not dependent upon what we make of it but of what he is making of us.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

Dayspring Eastering

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”― Gerard Manley Hopkins

“ELECTED Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorlèd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.”
― Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and Prose

Flowers amongst the weeds
Sun behind the clouds
Love beneath the fear
Forefront and backdrop
Choosing beauty to feed and sustain
Transforming ordinary into extraordinary
With a tilt of the head
Opening of the heart
Arms outstretched
Charged with grandeur
Elected silence
Dayspring eastering.

“Let Him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east.”― Gerard Manley Hopkins

Plentitude of Color

“Now shall I walk or shall I ride?
‘Ride,’ Pleasure said;
‘Walk,’ Joy replied.”
― W.H. Davies

“Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring.
The gray perished landscape is shorn of color.
Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged.
Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up.
Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return.
Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bud opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.” – John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Notes forming, taking shape to melody, spilling into symphony
Quiet to distant echoes of birds chorus
Bulbs shifting, preparing to bud
Chrysalis to butterfly
Beauty on every path
Walk softly, slowly with joyful intent
Colors asleep with imagination of brilliance to come
Winter well
Spring awaits our rested and renewed attention and awe
Symphony of renewal no longer reversible when seasons kiss.

“But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.”― George Eliot, Middlemarch

Winding Path to Bloom

“For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The secret of change is to focus not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates

We put a lot of weight on January.
Extremes, overdoing, marathon at sprint pace, shortcut seeking.
High expectations, low resilience.
If it was easy, it would be done already.
And it wouldn’t mean much either.
Do not fall into “quitter’s day/week/month” mindset.
There would be no flowers if the seed gave up after a few weeks.
No spring without the grounding of winter.
No harvest without planting.
Keep going.
Never too late.
Daily work, long-game, meaningful change.
Start over, adjust, carry on.
The work and winding path of bloom.

“She was unstoppable, not because she did not have failures and doubts, but because she continued on despite them.” — Beau Taplin

Slow the Pace, Ascend

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”― William Blake

“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst it’s perils.”― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Fresh year
Blank canvas
Broad horizon
Take in the view
Set the course
Slow the pace
Do the work
Small steps not big leaps
It need not all be done in January
Slow the pace
Direct energy, attention, effort
Detours, delays, resistance, friction guaranteed
Muscle, strength building for the long game
Consistency, discipline, mindset
Adds up, sticks, delivers
Slow the pace
Principles, perspectives, approaches
Rather than schemes, shortcuts, bursts
Real, meaningful change
Into the beautiful expanse
Keep climbing, slow the pace, enjoy the view.

“We become what we behold.”― William Blake, Jerusalem

Limit of the Sky, Depth of the Sea

“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.” – Mary Catherine Bateson

“New beginnings are usually welcome. But being a beginner? Not so much. We want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them. Instead, we want to rush ahead to mastery. We think we ought to know how to navigate the newness, especially if it’s something we wanted, something we prayed for, waited for, asked for, or planned.”― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing

Beginnings and being a beginner
To try new things
To turn, shift, wander
To be willing to learn and unlearn
If this is our one intention for this new year
What adventures may be right before us in ordinary days
Limit of the sky, depth of the sea.

“We either live with intention or exist by default.” – Kristin Armstrong

Art of Harvesting

“Perhaps the art of harvesting the secret riches of our lives is best achieved when we place profound trust in the act of beginning. Risk might be our greatest ally. To live a truly creative life, we always need to cast a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.” – John O’Donohue

FOR A NEW BEGINNING
by John O’Donohue

“In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”

First day
First month
New year
Day at a time
Commitments
Actions
Repetition
Starting
Falling
Progress
Lessons
Trying
Getting up again
Restarting
For things you want to change that have built over the years
Plant seeds, nurture, harvest
Time and timing
Set the pace, marathon not sprint
Do the work
Know your why
Give yourself the time, patience, kindness, consistency and grace
To become what is in your heart
Blank slate, start coloring outside the lines
Happy New Year!

Aspirations, Intentions, Actions

“An unintentional life accepts everything and does nothing. An intentional life embraces only the things that will add to the mission of significance.” – John C Maxwell

“We either live with intention or exist by default.” – Kristin Armstrong

New Year’s Eve resolutions
Shifting to aspirations, intentions, actions
To keep growing and deepening
To not know everything so I can keep learning and unlearning
To be generous and kind
To enter familiar rooms with fresh eyes
To ask more questions and listen
To quiet and seek discernment
To slow for reflection then dive in with resolve
To say no more making room for yes to the right things
To see and welcome joy and gratitude during challenges, roadblocks and detours
To pursue awe, wonder, delight, inquiry, discovery, connection
To deepen trust, faith, patience
To receive grace, light, love
And give it away with abandon
Aspirations to keep becoming and unfolding
Intentions to focus time and attention
Daily actions to move aspirations and intentions into motion
Direction, aim, fire
Repeat.

“Action expresses priorities.” – Mahatma Gandhi