Are situations that seem to have no satisfactory solution challenging me to grow, to change, to become more than I have been – stronger, gentler, more responsible, more loving? Are they inviting me, perhaps, to come alive in a whole new way?*
Bessel van der Kolk

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.**
Jesus of Nazareth

A little faithfulness goes a long way –
Each day becoming an opportunity to express
in multifarious ways,
Who we are and
what we have
in response to
the needs we find around us.

We begin to create the future
one small faithful act after another,
And we know what we must do.

This is an important theme for me
at the moment, as I am about
to step out of work and into
something new;
I have some ideas about dreamwhispering and
doodling, but these will need some
faithful support, some
activeness.

*Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score;
**Luke 16:10

The closer we look at what people believe and do, the more clear it is that our view of the world doesn’t precisely match theirs. It never has but now it’s magnified. No one believes what I believe, not exactly.*
Seth Godin

The question then is how to get lost. Never to get lost is not to live, not know how to get lost brings you to destruction, and somewhere in the terra incognito in between lies a life of discovery.**
Rebecca Solnit

We can be too serious when we first meet
each other;
Perhaps we first ought to be playful,
Maybe using the “Yes, and …” game so we can
become lost in each other.

Inherent to this is
vulnerability –
Taking time, letting go of agenda, shelving
opinions, willing to explore the
unfamiliar.

Yes, we’ll get things wrong,
But hopefully, when we do, there’ll be
forgiveness.

respect (n.) late 14c., “relationship, relation; regard, consideration” (as in in respect to), from Old French respectand directly from Latin respectus “regard, a looking at,” literally “act of looking back (or often) at one,” noun use of past participle of respicere “look back at, regard, consider,” from re- “back” (see re-) + specere “look at” (from PIE root *spek- “to observe”).

*Seth Godin’s blog: Points of view;
**Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

At its core, the idea of purpose is the idea that what we do matters to people other than ourselves. … In my “grit lexicon,” therefore, purpose means to contribute to the well-being of others.*
Angela Duckworth

I found that my purpose began
with an irritating question:
What do I do well and should focus on?

It’s a question I have asked in a refining
way over many years, and
it has led me to focus on helping others
find their purpose.

*Angela Duckworth’s Grit.

Explorers were always lost because they had never been to places before.  They never expected to know where they were.*
Aaron Sachs

*Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

Always have the courage
To change, welcoming those voices
That call you beyond your self.*
John O’Donohue

Living things must change on order to stay the same. Or more precisely, living things must change to remain themselves. … Life is the ongoing process of self-making. It is that which continuously changes itself in order to continue being itself.**
David Rome

We change to remain ourselves because
within each of us lie many possibilities,
Many futures:
In a word:
one ought to turn the most extreme
possibility inside oneself into
the measure for one’s life,
for our life is vast and
can accommodate as much
future as we are
able to carry.^

Where to begin?

How about identifying that
most extreme possibility
within you,
And imagining its smallest iteration so that you can
do it.

*John O’Donohue’s Benedictus: At the Threshold of Manhood;
**David Rome’s Your Body Knows the Answer;
^Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life.

This is how it works. Each morning I take a running leap and I dive into words. I hunt under the surface for the right ones and emerge with the catch. … A daily practice. My meditation.*
Lemn Sissay

We live our lives so poorly because we arrive in the present always unprepared, incapable and too distracted for everything.**
Rainer Maria Rilke

How might we awaken to the infinite
at the beginning of the day?:
how to contain the serious within the playful;
that is,
to keep all our finite games in infinite play.^

Together with my porridge,
I dive into ideas,
Like the BFG gathering dreams:
Every morning I is going out
and snitching new dreams
to put in my bottles.^^

Some write their morning pages
to connect with what they love,
Their infinite,
Others use the time between home and work
to reconnect with what matters most to them.

It’s not about the time spent,
Or the method used,
But providing ourselves with
the gift of preparation.

*Lemn Sissay’s let the light pour in;
**Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life:
^James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games;
^^Roald Dahl’s The BFG.

Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don’t understand.**
Dacher Keltner

Thus, awe’s ability to increase compassion and altruism appears to be one of the core reasons for its prominent place in our emotional repertoire.^
Jonah Paquette

I love questions,
And the adventures they open before me,
But I am appreciating more
the important part that
mystery
has to play within my life,
As Lao Tzu pens so well:
From wonder into wonder,
existence opens.*

Joseph Campbell would tell us that
this relates to the metaphysical function of myths,
A connecting with the ground of our being –
The other three functions being the
cosmological, sociological, and pedagogical;
Indeed, we might connect awe as
a benefit to each of these:
At the universe science is opening up to us,
In the exploration of human connectedness, and,
By inspiring and guiding us through the stages,
Or non-linearity, of our lives.

*Len Sweet’s Out of the Question … Into the Mystery;
**Dacher Keltner’s Awe;
^Jonah Paquette’s Awestruck.

There are a million different things that bug billions of different people … so the bugs that stick out to you might be worth listening to. They’re your bugs. They just might be guiding you toward your proper path.*
Gabe Anderson

When a musician, a playwright or an entrepreneur takes a risk, they’re betting someone will care enough to hear them and engage with them. They do the work because they care, not because someone handed them a manual.**
Seth Godin

Are you waiting for someone else to
come along and
do something
about that thing you can’t help but
notice?

Whether it’s something that
really gets on your nerves, or
you’ve always wanted to do,
Don’t wait, find
the smallest way for doing something about it
today.

It’s how I got into
dreamwhispering, and today
I will be with a small crowd of people
in the university I’m about to retire from, who are
wanting to see whether they can
connect it with their work
in some way or other.

How will you go about finding that thing
the nature of which is totally unknown to you?^

*Gabe Anderson’s blog: Things That Bug You;
**Seth Godin’s blog: But it matters a lot to them …;
^Meno, from Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

Going through a ritual every day keeps you on the line.*
Joseph Campbell

The world has become too fast, too loud, too much.**
Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo

When I say find your story,
I don’t so much mean that it’s lost,
More that it’s covered up;
And it’s not difficult to uncover,
It will just need you to
slow down so that you can notice
some things.

These things will show you
your story, and within it,
Plenty of rites and rituals
to shape the day
towards you
rather than away from you.

*Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers’ The Power of Myth;
**Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo’s Sensitive.

If we overemphasise talent, we underemphasise everything else.*
Angela Duckworth

Getting hit by lightening, finding the perfect job, having a djuini grant three wishes – these are all lotteries. … The problem with lottery thinking is that it takes us away from thinking about the chronic stuff instead. The pervasive, consistent challenge that will respond to committed effort.**
Seth Godin

We can be wowed by a person’s talents, but
faithfulness is bigger, requiring talent and
a good heart and
effort over time and distance.

It’s not perfect,
And that’s okay because
it want to keep going and going,
One small expression of humility and
gratitude after another.

Every little action toward your Future Self
is you more fully being your Future Self
now.^

*Angela Duckworth’s Grit;
**Seth Godin’s blog: Lottery thinking;
^Ben Hardy’s Be Your Future Self Now.