Listening

It’s been awhile since I’ve felt strong enough to focus back here, and yet so much has happened since my last post – its not for lack of content. After packing up from my urban corporate life about a year ago, I went through a period of whirlwind adjustment which allowed me the luxury of avoiding some of the internal work needed to really process what had happened. After a busy summer of organizing, planning, hosting, sharing, and rationalizing about how wonderful my new life was going to be, autumn fell with a thud . . . and so did I.

I began to realize how deep the unspoken checklist of what we think will make us happy runs, and that sometimes life demands us to redefine happiness and success. Conscious decision in and of itself is not enough, conditioning runs deep and takes work.

Award winning American poet Mary Oliver provides me with inspirational instruction in her simple yet powerful poem, Praying:

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

***

And so with intention I quiet my thoughts, and I listen.

Blessings,