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Posts tagged ‘Change’

Aug 9

Go On

“The lesson, so simple yet so difficult, is that life can be savored even though it contains hardship, disappointment, loss, and even brutality. The choice to see its beauty is available to us at every moment.”― David von Drehle, The Book of Charlie

“Let it go and Hold on! In the way of so many great philosophies, those apparent opposites prove to be two sides of the same coin. To hold securely to the well-formed purposes of your own will, you must let go of the vain idea that you can control people or events or the tides of fate. You can’t change what was, nor entirely control what will be. But you can choose who you are and what you stand for and what you will try to accomplish.”― David von Drehle, The Book of Charlie

Let go.
And.
Hold on.
Pause to take in the view.
Then take the next step.
Being and doing.
Room for both.
Glance back only for a moment.
Then proceed.
Moving forward with what is necessary.
The dance of change, growth, transformation.
The classroom of life.
The art of living well.

“Charlie made an art of living. He understood, as great artists do, that every life is a mixture of comedy and tragedy, joy and sorrow, daring and fear. We choose the tenor of our lives from those clashing notes. Even when Charlie’s strength was fading, when the golf course had become an obstacle course, when the infirmity of encroaching time could no longer be denied, he chose to turn his wedge into a walking stick and to carry it with panache.”― David von Drehle, The Book of Charlie

Aug 1

2 Comments

Listen and Leap

“Like billowing clouds,
Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.”― Hildegard von Bingen

“Dare to declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the boundaries of speech. The path is not long, but the way is deep. You must not only walk there, you must be prepared to leap.”― St. Hildegard of Bingen

Not long, but deep.
Shores to boundaries.
Not walk, leap.
Inquire, listen, intuit.
Beneath and beyond the noise.
A knowing in the unknowing.
A calling in the wilderness.
Answer, respond, act.
See and cast your own light.

“We cannot live in a world interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.”― Hildegard of Bingen

May 13

In a New Way

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“i do not wish
to change the past
it made me
who i am today
i only want
to learn from it
and live in a new way”
― yung pueblo, Inward

Circling the same mountains.
Doing the same things, getting the same results.
When the horse is dead, dismount.
Pick new mountains to climb, not circle.
Do new things.
Keep going.
Live well in a new way.
Color. Beauty. Bloom.
Seasons. Cycles. Transformation.

“Become who you want to be while you can enjoy it. Don’t put off doing the work of becoming who you want to be. Waiting will not make it easier, and time is short.”― Kerry Egan, On Living

Apr 20

To Begin Again, and Again…

“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.” – Barbara Sher

Today marks the one-year anniversary of starting a new job, changing after 17 years in the same place and a plan of retiring there. A big move later in my career when most would say stay, coast, and settle. You’re too old. Your time is up. Quiet quit.

Not me. I’m not done yet. We settle and stay in places that are stale, over and where we don’t fit and aren’t welcome anymore to avoid change at all costs. Working with a career coach got me out of my own way, challenged old narratives and limiting beliefs. She helped me do the work to uncover what was next and possible. So grateful a friend sent me her way!

This past year I became a beginner again. Exhilarating, daunting and transformational. It has been the best thing that I have done for myself in years. Don’t settle and acquiesce! Take time to reflect and plan, but don’t wait to have everything figured out. Have a direction and move, the road unfolds with action, a step at a time. If and when you make a mistake, then pivot, shift, try something else. Often it is merely a tweak or a shift in attitude. We learn from trying new things and beginning again and again. Life is too short to circle dead-ends. Break trail!

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Dylan Thomas

Feb 12

The Lens of the Heart

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering… these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love… these are what we stay alive for.”― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”― William James

We are clear on what we are against, murky on what we are for.
It’s easier to criticize than create.
To “other” and “them,” to disregard, disconnect, dismiss.
The world is flat.
God is small.
Being “right” is enough.

May we have the fortitude to question, reframe, rethink and reshape our perspective.
To go beneath the surface of self to the root, to the core.
To see shapes, shadows, nuance, complexity, commonality, diversity, patterns, connection.
Weeding out the old, dry and stale.
Tilling the soil, planting newness, color and hue.
Unknowing, unlearning to expand, invite and open to depth and dimension.
Growth, change, transition, transformation.
Nurturing beauty, understanding, goodness, awe and wonder.
Widen the aperture to let in more light.
See through the lens of your heart.

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”― William James

Feb 11

Perception Reboot

“Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.”― Walt Whitman

“To change one’s life:

  1. Start immediately.
  2. Do it flamboyantly.
  3. No exceptions.” ― William James

To what, who, when are you clinging to?
What hinges and holds?
Binding or freeing.
Tangling or unwinding.
And, or, all of the above, everything in between.
Create a foundation, a framework, principles.
Less rules, regulations, assumptions, limiting beliefs.
More wonder, awe, inquiry, opening.

Listen, examine, assess, dismiss, remove, replace, reboot.
We have a capacity and agency to change, transition and transform.
Choose and keep choosing each day.
One step, then the next, putting fear in its place, the sideline.
Present yet ignored.

Embrace, expand, step out.
Create, unfold, unfurl.
Clear your cache.
Perception reboot.

“To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds,”― William James

Jan 9

Greatest Treasures

“Stop leaving and you will arrive. Stop searching and you will see. Stop running away and you will be found.”― Lao Tzu

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

January.
The month of strong starts and quick stops.
Returning to familiar old when motivation wanes and drains.
Change it this time.
Not leaps and grand gestures.
A few steps each day repeated to compound, multiply, root.
Repeat, focus, keep going.
Mindfulness. Reflection. Action.
Do the daily work and wait.
Letting go to take hold.
Clearing clutter within and out to create space.
Renewal a moment, an hour, a day at time.
Body, mind, soul.
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
Caterpillar to butterfly.

“Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?”― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Dec 1

First Day, Last Month

“Beauty is a fragile gift.” – Ovid

“The journey itself is my home.”― Matsuo Basho

Beginnings and endings
Firsts and lasts
Starts and finishes
Before and After
Thresholds to cross
Roads to travel
The in betweens, the middle
In all of it, may you find meaning on your journey
Seeking and finding beauty, joy, light amidst the middles and transitions
Awake to transformation unfolding.

“Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin.” – Francesca da Rimini

Oct 13

Malleable

“Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”― Haruki Marukami

“What might we learn if we listen, if we wade in—unafraid, untethered, and uninhibited—ready to become the ones we were created to become.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God

Pushed
Pulled
Stretched
Reshaped
Flipped upside down
Shaken
Stirred
Resistance, friction, flow
Different yet familiar
Connected, present, complete
Untether, malleable, made new
The journey is one of becoming
Transitions, thresholds, transformation

“If you’re willing to pay attention to and dialogue with what’s happening inside of you, you’ll find that your body already knows the answers about how to live a full, present, connected, and healthy life.”― Hillary L. McBride, The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection through Embodied Living

Sep 1

Journey to Self-Renewal

“It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive.” – William Bridges

“CONSIDERING THAT WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH ENDINGS all our lives, most of us handle them poorly. This is in part because we misunderstand them and take them either too seriously or not seriously enough. We take them too seriously by confusing them with finality—that’s it, all over, never more, finished! We see them as something without sequel, forgetting that they are the first phase of the transition process and a precondition of self-renewal. At the same time, we fail to take them seriously enough. Because they scare us, we try to avoid them.”― William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes

Changes in seasons
In relationships
In jobs
In circumstances
In self
The bridge of transitions
Where waiting resides
Patience demanded
Letting go required
Identity upended
Uncertainty guaranteed
Unsettled ground to stand on
Allow the struggle to do its work in you
And invite joy daily in rituals and practices
Summer to fall
Contraction to expansion
Stagnation to momentum
The sacred space of self-renewal, fruition and harvest
The work of transformation
Fruits of the labor certain.

“In other words, change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner reorientation and self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens, the change won’t work, because it doesn’t “take.”― William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes

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