The sense of wonder can also help you to recognise and appreciate the mystery of your life.*
John O’Donohue

With only slight exaggeration I would say that we are not; we constantly constitute ourselves anew and differently at the intersection of all those influences that teach into the sphere of our building.**
Rainer Maria Rilke

When we only allow ourselves to connect with
what we know about another,
It is likely that we want to control what we are doing, or,
Who they are, resulting in
a series of movements around one another;
Yet, if we dare be open to the unknown in each other –
And within ourselves –
There is the possibly of entering a
perichoretical dance of movement
through rather than around, enabling all participants
to further plumb the depths of who they are becoming and’/
what they are bringing.

*John O’Donohue’s Eternal Echoes;
**Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life;
(The doodle is a play with Lawrence Kushner’s God Was In This Place and I, I Did Not Know.

Human beings at best are givers of gifts.*
David Brooks

I took an involuntary situation and turned it into a voluntary one.**
Bruce Feiler

This may not be where
you want to be right now,
But you are who you are with
all that you have, and
giving is the key.

That which seems like a false step is just the next step.^

*David Brooks’ The Second Mountain;
**Bruce Feiler’s Life Is In the Transitions;
^Agnes Martin, from Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations For Mortals.

We have no choice but to condense a story when we want to film it. Our real story, on the other hand, cannot be condensed, it can only be lived. Day by day.**
Seth Godin

The person going through the experience has to choose to convert the change and upheaval into transition and renewal.^
Bruce Feiler

We may wish for the concentrated life made up
of all and only the good bits, but
life is diluted by problems,
One after another, large and small, filling
our days, which also means we have plenty of space to be
curious, attentive, deep-diving, discovering, playing, imagining,
Messing up, learning, starting over, producing, giving, receiving,
And then another day comes along;
We want to control, but it’s more likely that the way forward is
through transitioning and renewal, something we are capable of as
imagineers and alchemists, Wallace Stevens encouraging us to bring
the power of imagination to the pressure of reality.^^

*Dinah Washington’s What a Difference a Day Makes to enjoy while pondering what these 24 hours may hold;
**Seth Godin’s blog: The problem with the movie version;
^Bruce Feiler’s Life Is In the Transitions;
^^Your particular kind of alchemy will depends on your talents, energies, and values. You’re welcome to drop me a line to find out more.

The essence of chaos is self organising … Chaos is nature’s creativity in the face of constant change. The human equivalent of this, is the process of psychic adaptation. Just as the body has the ability to correct imbalances, so does the mind.*
Bruce Feiler

What does life want from me? What are the circumstances calling me to do? In this scheme of things we don’t create our lives; we are summoned by life.**
David Brooks

This randomness we are born into has
some purpose for us, something that will
use our talents and provide us with meaning;
Existence isn’t a finely choreographed life plan but
our dramatic story response to the need
that is already here with
the best of ourselves.

*Bruce Feiler’s Life Is In the Transitions;
**David Brooks’ The Road to Character.

If it were not imagined
It could not be made
Therefore imagination
Must not be afraid*
Lemn Sissay

I’m good for something, so what is it?**
Vincent van Gogh

If we’re involved in doing something, we’ve
already imagined it –
Going to the shops, cutting the grass, what
we’ll be eating later –
For most of us, a little picture will have appeared;
Beyond the everyday, imagination enables us to
determine our True Self and what our
contribution will be –
Sometimes others push our imaginations, or perhaps
we notice something that we feel compelled
to act upon –
By definition,
a life task is something
your life is asking of you …^ –
Everyone has a different imagination to bring
into play, something you can do and that
you enjoy:
You have to like your work.^^

Of course,
It is possible to imagine unhelpful, negative, and
destructive things, or become distracted by the everyday,
By the status quo and normality, so we need to intentionally
grow and develop our imaginations –
A good, wholesome diet,*^
Then to playfully practise, to fail and learn,^*
Before giving full expression to what we have envisaged.

*Lemn Sissay’s let the light pour in;
**Davie Epstein’s Range;
^Oliver Burkeman’s Meditation For Mortals;
^^Gabe Anderson‘s You Have to Like Your Work;
*^What and who are we reading, watching, listening to?;
^*Remembering that we imagine something perfect, but in reality this can never be reproduced.

Each of us is responsible for finding our own reason to live.*
Bruce Feiler

True choice is a dilemma … A choice between two irreconcilable goods, or the lesser of two evils.**
Robert McKee

How to choose? –
To go for one option is to dismiss the other or others,
But what we swap choice for is
intensity of heart:
When you commit you deepen presence.
Though your choice narrows
the range of possibility now open to you,
it increases the intensity of chosen possibility.^

Wholeheartedness –
Carlos Castenedas passes on ancient wisdom when he records,
Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good;
if it doesn’t, it is of no use.
Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart,
the other doesn’t … One makes you strong;
the other weakens you.^^

My own experience, after
choosing to focus on helping others
to know their heart, is that more choices follow,
A wholehearted life keeps on bringing them to us.

*Bruce Feiler’s Life Is In the Transitions;
**Robert McKee‘s newsletter: The Beauty of Character Dilemma;
^John O’Donohoe’s Eternal Echoes;
^^Carlos Castenedas’ The Teachings of Don Juan.

Another day of doodles across the years.

Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, whole-heartedly, directionally, without reservation or regret.*
William Sheldon

But to be what I am, to live, to want to sound like no one else, to yield the blossoms dictated by my heart: this is what I want and surely this cannot be arrogance.**
Rainer Maria Rilke

You have always been
your destination –
Beyond place and achievement
and recognition –
Though you may never arrive for
you are always becoming
for the sake of others.

*David Brooks’ The Second Mountain;
**Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters On Life.

Out of asking the right questions and living the questions will come right actions that preset themselves in compelling ways.*
Henri Nouwen

I think when you’re self-taught you experiment more, trying to find the same sound in different places, you learn how to solve problems.**
Jack Cecchini

Life is all about questions –
Imagine if you could never be curious or wondering again about anything.

Would life be closing in around you rather than
opening out, blossoming?

Even a problem is a question trying to find a voice, and
its voice maybe yours.

Anyone can ask a question, without the need to ask permission,
But if you want to be super-polite, you may begin with “May I ask a question?”

And if you can ask a question then you can explore, and
if you can explore, you can experiment.

What are you most curious about? –
A question born of curiosity is a very personal thing.

We haven’t got time to question everything – in an age of information overload,
It’s okay to allow most of this to float on by.

Some ask questions that create beginnings, others ask questions right at the end;
We need all of them- what’s yours?

*Henri Nouwen’s Spiritual Direction;
**David Epstein’s Range.