Insist on yourself; never imitate … .*
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Often, when we set out to do our work, we focus on popularity and breadth at the expense of the magic and singular experience that could create a favourite. Something we’d miss if it weren’t there.**
Seth Godin

There is no one else who may respond to
the call upon your life,
Formed uniquely by the choices you have made,
The person you’ve become.

*Lewis Hyde’s Common As Air;
**Seth Godin’s blog: America’s favourite pie.

The world is large, but in us it is as deep as the sea.*
Rainer Maria Rilke

Integrity is the cure for unhappiness. Period**
Martha Beck

Don’t head outwards just yet,
Dillydally inside a little longer,
Exploring the vastness of an
inner world of imagination and possibility.

*Joseph Campbell’s Myths To Live By;
**Martha Beck’s The Way of Integrity.

“What is ready to die here?” may seem harsh, but it opens the gate to the intimately related question “What is ready to be born?”*
David Rome

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.**
Maya Angelou

Hugh Macleod’s doodle carries the text:
I’m not asking for much,
I just need it to be 1992 again.

That would make me 33 again,
and whilst I can see the appeal of that,
The ensuing years have left me with
so many things that are wanting to
begin, so I will
let go and let come.

*David Rome’s Your Body Knows the Answer;
**Seth Godin’s The Carbon Almanac.

throughout adulthood, we maintain the ability to grow myelin*
Angela Duckworth

This fact keeps changing everything;
Myelin is layered around our synaptic connections as an
insulating coating when we practise our skills –
The more insulation,
The faster the electrical signal,
The more developed and skilful the activity.

We may say, then, today is
bright, and tomorrow,
Brighter,
Especially when we action our stories –
The things we have come to understand that
we must do if
we are to fully live our lives and
contribute to others.

*Angela Duckworth’s Grit.

Have others told you how they
wish they could have your energy and enthusiasm?

But that’s not possible –
They really need to find their own,
And the difficult part isn’t finding it,
But letting it out –
Maybe today will be the day.

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.