For me there is only the travelling on paths that have heart, on any paths that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worth-while challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel looking, looking, breathlessly.*
Don Juan

To walk is to gather treasure.**
Miguel Angel Blanco

There’s understanding and there’s doing,
both are important but better when wrapped around
the heart.

*Carlos Castenedes’ The Teachings of Don Juan;
**Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways.

That feels like fun to me, but work to others? … What makes me lose track of time? … Where do I get greater returns than the average person? … What comes naturally to me?*
James Clear

There is a STATE OF MIND which is NOT ACCESSIBLE BY THINKING. It sees to require a participation WITH SOMETHING.**
Lynda Barry

As I read James Clear’s
questions,
Intended to help me figure out which habits to focus on developing,
I find myself thinking about how,
When it comes to my particular kinds of activeness,^
I have hardly begun,
Never mind being ready to retire.

(I want to add a note of thanks to those who have recently signed up
to follow thin|silence.
I hope the daily posts encourage you in the amazing things you find you
must
be about.)

*James Clear’s Atomic Habits;
**Lynda Barry’s What It Is;
^Thank you to Erich Fromm for his word to describe the opposite of passiveness.

And then there are the moments, maybe more toward middle or old age, when the leopard comes down out of the hills and just sits there in the middle of the doorframe.  He stares at you inescapably.  He demands your justification.  What good have you served?  For what did you come?  What sort of person have you become?  There are no excuses at that moment.  Everybody has to throw off the mask.*
David Brooks

*David Brooks’ The Second Mountain.

It struck me that the only voice that spoke about the future as the result of a creative act was the one person whose view of reality was not shaped by [a] fixed view of the future.*
Erwin McManus

Don’t you just miss the future!

*Erwin McManus’ The Last Arrow, speaking of Seth Godin.

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.*
Viktor Frankl

Worry less about making a mark. Worry more about leaving things better than you found them.
Austin Kleon

Okay,
That didn’t go well.
Let’s try it again.

*Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission;
**Austin Kleon’s Keep Going.

Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others, because only he can be sure that he will be the same at a future times as he is today, and, therefore, that he will feel and act as he now expects to.*
Erich Fromm

What if your life is like a story and you and I are in the theatre of our own minds, looking out the cameras of our eyes, and the story unfolding feels either meaningful or meaningless based on what we decide to make happen in it? … meaning is only experienced in motion**
Donald Miller

Faithfulness is about putting
who we are
and what we have
into action.

It requires that we be faithful to ourselves,
To notice what fascinates and intrigues us most,
And to our desires and passions.
If we cannot find things to be faithful to in ourselves,
How can we be faithful as we need to be for others?

There is stuff that each of us does that gives us energy –
A lot of energy to do more stuff –
It is critical we notice what this is;
There is other stuff we each do that sucks energy out of us
faster than Buddy the Elf can empty a bottle of coke –
It may be even more critical that we notice this.

Here’s a simple thing to do that I’ve shared before:
Keep two lists –
A “loved it” list and a “loathed it” list.
When you notice you are highly energised,
Make a note right then of what it is:^
Likewise, when you are being greatly de-energised
by something you are doing,
Make a note of what it is.

You have to be faithful to what is on the loved it list and DO more of these;
You have to be faithless to what’s on your loathed it list,
But if you can’t avoid these things,
Manage them with the contents on your loved it list.

*Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving;
**Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission (emphasis mine);
^The things to make a note of are: What are you doing?, why are you doing it?, who are you doing it with or for?, and, when are you doing it?

Most of the time, the phrase is, “it’s time to get back to work.” This means it’s time to stop being creative, stop dancing with possibility, stop acquiring new insights and inspiration – and go back to the measurable grind instead. Maybe we’d be better off saying, “I need to get back to making magic.” Because that’s what we’d actually like to be getting paid to create.**
Seth Godin

As much as we love Harry Potter,
We now this saga’s magic isn’t to be found in the spells and incantations
of witches and wizards,
But in the love of family and friends,
The courage to keep going against overwhelming odds,
In spite of all our limitations,
And, yes,
Facing our own death,
The ultimate limitation.

There’s a kind of alchemy that occurs
when we are prepared to live within our story,
As Donald Miller encourages here:

The heroic transformation begins when the hero takes responsibility for their life and for their story. The hero becomes the hero only when they decide to accept the facts of their life and respond with courage.^

Again, this time from Lewis Hyde,
A suggestion that something magical is possible through our lives:

because world and body are meant to pattern one another, when [the trickster] reimagines his body he imagines the world^^.

Magic is possible where we are when we are
who we are;
Here is Joseph Campbell touching upon this:

To claim the land.  To turn the land where they lived into a place of spiritual relevance. […] One should find the symbol in the landscape itself of the energies of the life there.  The is what all traditions do.  They sanctify their own landscape.⁺ 

We may want someone else’s story,
But really,
The very best place to begin is within our own story;
The facts of life are not how we were made,
But where we are right now,
However difficult a place this might be:

Being able to perform becomes the critical issue: Competence is the best defence against the helplessness of trauma.*^

Magic is moving our lives toward the future,
Transforming our stories.
Yes, there will be a lot of sweat and tears,
Failing and persevering,
But amongst these, there’ll be moments that can only be described as
magical.

For our purposes today,
The opposite of magic is tragic,
Not allowing ourselves and others to believe there will be moments of
wonder and amazement that are the result of their imagination and creativity.

For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is a problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.^*

*Thank you to Queen for the title;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Time to get back to magic;
^Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission;
^^Lewis Hyde’s Trickster Makes This World;
⁺Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers’ The Power of Myth;
*^Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score;
^*Thomas Merton, from Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile’s The Road Back to You.

Non-wanderers are called sleepers.*
Keri Smith

What draws you out of yourself?**
Donald Miller

You must find your light and bring it
to the start of the day;
It is also how we bring more light
to one another.

We reconnect with the story we want to live
so that we might bring the power of imagination
to the pressure of reality
every day.

*Keri Smith’s The Wander Society;
**Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission.

A good story isn’t just about the hero. It’s about the people the hero loves, the people dependent on the hero, the victim the hero is going to rescue. Stories may be told through the lens of the hero, but they are always about what is happening to a community of people.*
Donald Miller

May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.**

Coinciding with the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth taking place today
has been my reading of Donald Miller’s suggestion that we prepare our own eulogies –
To help us connect daily with what is most important to us.

In a good story,
Miller writes,
There has to be a ticking clock;
Something has to happen to someone
by a certain time.

Death is our ticking clock.
Not something to be feared, but
our servant towards living
a meaningful life,
Even life-in-all-its-fullness.

Over the past days
I have listened to many poignant eulogies to the Queen,
Some no longer than a sentence,
Each very special.
Admittedly, after leading many funeral services over
forty years,
I can find myself wondering who may come to mine,
And what will they say.
I’m not being morbid,
Rather I am trying to be more focused about how to live the
remainder of my days.

However much longer we have,
Using our eulogy at the beginning of each day
In some way, shape or form,
Will keep us connected to what we want our lives to be filled with,
Which, as Miller suggests,
Will include others whose lives we want to fill with good things, too.

*Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission;
**Psalm 72:6-7 – a psalm for the king.

Our possibilities are not limitless, but they are at least infinitely above our present possibilities of imagination.*
Frank Laubach

Each life is a mystery that is never finally available to the mind’s light or questions. That we are here is a huge affirmation; somehow life needed us and wanted us to be. To sense and trust this primeval acceptance can open a vast spring of trust within the heart. It can free us into a natural courage which casts out fear and opens up our lives to become voyages of discovery, creativity and compassion.**
John O’Donohue

It is said that
tomorrow never comes,
And yet there is a way in which it can be transformed into
today.

Yesterday may not have been all that we wanted it to be,
But now it’s gone and we have this opportunity to
start over.

The way to tomorrow
is not some plan or a map to be followed:
It is people with whom we connect,
including yourself.
Connect to yourself and your hope,
Join with with those who will help you –
The main characteristic of a guide is that they help the hero win^ –
Also relate to the reality of your world,
And,
If you have a god,
Be in relationship, too.

Begin writing out and about these things every day,
And your way, or path, will emerge.
Then, later in the day,
Find ways of exploring, experimenting,
Asking your questions of the way:

Begin. With the humility of someone who’s not sure, and the excitement of someone who knows that it’s possible.^^

*Frank Laubach’s Letters By a Modern Mystic;
**John O’Donohue’s Benedictus;
^Donald Miller’s Hero on a Mission;
^^Seth Godin’s blog: Beginning is underrated.