The best way to achieve freedom is to take responsibility for the actions you’re taking. And the best way to be clear that you’re taking responsibility is to highlight the externalities and own them.*
Seth Godin

Living in accordance with your values is never finished, it is a lifelong journey.**
Steven Hayes

More than what we have, freedom
is what we make possible for others, including
Sister Earth.

Values outlast us, and great values
call us into adventures for a lifetime—
The freedom of life-in-all-its-fullness.

(Perhaps take a few moment to write out your values, and reflect upon the adventures they make possible for you – and for others. If you haven’t got the time, what might that be saying about your freedom?)

*Seth Godin’s blog: Embracing externalities;
**Steven Hayes’ A Liberated Mind.

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Time does not pass for the infinite player. Each moment of time is a beginning of a period of time. It is the beginning of an event that gives the time within its specific quality.*
James Carse

A stable, balanced life is a life losing energy – and so is a stable, balanced city.**
Richard Sennett

The finite game has an end, its players
move relentlessly towards it—
Expending their energy.

The infinite game comprises endless beginnings, its players
seeking to be present, surprised, and becoming—
Endlessly regenerated.

(We all have our finite games, but knowing what our infinite play is, we can more generously contribute to the former. What is your infinite play?)

*James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games;
**Richard Sennett’s Building and Dwelling.

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Enough comes from the inside.*
Ryan Holiday

Direct your eye inward, and you’ll find
A thousand regions in your mind
Yet undiscovered – Travel them, and be
Expert in home cosmography**
Henry David Thoreau

Others write and thereby forge
spacecraft for journeys of exploration,
Their interior shaped by my daily quietness and journal,
Enabling voyages of discovering and understanding
Through my little charted into interior where
I endeavour to find I am enough.

When I look outwards,
I find I am surrounded
by countless universes of wonder.

(What if you understood your reading or listening to be spacecraft for discovery? How would you shape the interior space for deeper understanding, reflection, and transformation?)

*Ryan Holiday’s Stillness is the Key;
**Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; adaptation by Nicholas Bone.

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And there is a meaning to destiny – destiny is as essential to the meaning of life as is death. Within [their] own ‘exclusive’ sphere of destiny every [person] is irreplaceable.*
Viktor Frankl

We care most about the things we have struggled to understand.**
Leon Festinger

It’s all about
journey.

The time and effort through experience
committed to arriving here.

Each values
their own journey the most.

Looking back, you understand
this is your destiny.

You have made it so— and
it is your life.

Seeing destiny as something we forge, what is yours?

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul; made inclusive by me;
**Richard Sennett’s Building and Dwelling.

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The items you get to keep are love for the work, will to finish, and passion to serve the ethical, creative Muse.*
Steven Pressfield

five phases of creation: inspiration, concentration, organisation, implementation, and sustenance**
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

When we leave our ego at the door, as
Steven Pressfield imagines,
We are left with much.

Visiting the home of the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio,
I stooped to enter his studio, the low doorway being
a physical reminder to begin by humbling myself.

Beyond lay a magical space, and
through humility lies unalloyed
love, and will, and passion to do what we must.

We all have different work, each
with an alternative low entrance we can
choose to lower ourselves through.

And on completing our work, Clarissa Pinkola Estés reminds us to
sustain ourselves— perhaps in many small ways, be delighted and
thankful as celebration, and then provide yourself rest.

*Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work;
**Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves.

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If a prophet is put on any kind of career track or staff org chart, his or her whole role and mission will be distorted or even destroyed.*
Richard Rohr

Abraham’s migration is not just a story of the past.
It is an invitation
To hear the whisper.
To trust a vision.
To become part of a journey that began with
stars and still burns in our bones.**
AleXander McManus

The prophet isn’t the person
who mouths off at every opportunity.

The prophet embarks
first of all on a personal journey.

Something is wrong and they are concerned—
Even angry about it.

Then they enter their sadness,
And their empathy and compassion grow.

Their words and actions, now heard and seen, are of
hope and love.

I have a sense that many more prophets will appear
in these crazy days.

This journey will be our measure,
And the measure of others.

May I invite you to ponder,
What are you a prophet for?

*Richard Rohr’s The Tears of Things;
**AleXander McManus’ Blue Moments.

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There’s a reason it’s called a cursor. We all have a blinking line. Your blinking line is whatever sits in front of you waiting to be brought into existence.*
Rob Bell

How we see the world has everything to do with what we can do in the world.**
Rebecca Solnit

What you see
and others do not,
What you feel
and others seem incapable of—

Perhaps the universe is bending towards you
showing you what you must do
and where to begin.

How about writing it out to provide it some solidity,
Providing some space for its shape to appear—

A small first step may follow.

*Rob Bell’s How To Be Here;
**Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There.

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human motivation is actually based on a timescale that is long, sometimes even longer than our lifetime*
Dan Ariely

Man is pushed by drives but pulled by values.**
Viktor Frankl

There it is
again, a call to oneness— to some
fuller expression,
My simplicity on the far side of complexity,
Freedom on the farther side of reality and limitation,
Values that believe in me, and will not leave me at rest.

When do you hear your values calling?

*Dan Ariely’s Payoff;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.

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Humans are drawn to folks who care enough to try a bit harder.*
Seth Godin

They’re coming because of the music but it’s your obsession they wanna see. Your passion. Your belief. They want to experience the fire. Your passion. Your belief. They want to experience the fire. If you’re obsessed maybe they will be too.**
Gabe Anderson

Whatever our music,
It’s not just about trying harder—
It’s about becoming the kind of people who care more…

For
others, for
Earth, for
your god, and maybe
for yourself.

*Seth Godin’s blog: Not trying very hard;
**Gabe Anderson’s blog: What They’re Coming To See.

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You weren’t meant to be idle.
You weren’t built for sitting and staring at screens.
You live to push, pull, climb, and grow.*
Derek Sivers

We are all responsible for creating these brave, safe places and dismantling the systems that perpetuate trauma.**
Brené Brown

Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set
and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead?

This children’s TV show from the 1970s-1990s encouraged
youngsters to find their creativity—and each other.

It’s not a bad message today’s internet generations:
To find our art and make it available for others.

Added benefits include staying closer to our True Self and
creating spaces where others can find theirs.

What does your creativity look like?

*Derek Sivers’ How To Live;
**Brené Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection.

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