In life one cannot awaken often enough the sense of a beginning within oneself. There is so little external change needed for that since we actually transform the world from within our hearts. If the heart longs for nothing but to be new and unlimited, the world is instantly the same as on the day of its creation and infinite.*
(Rainer Maria Rilke)

Social change will not come to us like an avalanche down the mountain. Social change will come through seeds growing in well-prepared soil – and it is we, like the earthworms, who prepare the soil. We also seed thoughts and knowledge and concern.**
(Ursula Franklin)

My grandson Archie is preparing to walk. For quite a few months, he’s been perfecting crawling. And on the other side of walking he’ll be able to discover running, jumping, dancing and playing sports. If he puts in enough time and effort, he’ll be able to do all of these things to the extent of his curiosity and interest.

Everything we do is preparation for something else when we are living in the direction of our curiosity and wonder. Preparing the mind is important, but more important is preparing the heart, where everything comes together in a swirl of energy that is generative and regenerative.

And then we’re ready to move:

complete awareness is not merely intellectual but actively experiential^.

I’ve been preparing a lifetime for today, but I also set out at the beginning of the day in more moments of preparation for what I must do.

Mind, heart, do.

Keep preparing, the world needs what you bring.

(*From Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life.)
(**From Ursula Franklin’s The Real World of Technology.)
(^From Julian Baggini’s How the World Thinks.)