On The Road ...
Whatever step you choose will take you closer to where you want to be. … Creative force is the energy necessary to begin a new experience. … Energy is always in motion. Gregge Tiffen – Life: The Staircase of Many Steps – January, 2008
Happy New Year! The page has turned, and here we are with the blank canvas of a new year to paint. 361 more days to engage in life - to live, to love, to experiment, to learn, to grow - before we complete the cycle of this calendar year.
Traditionally we set goals, make ‘resolutions’ and plans, to start a new year. And, all too often ‘life’ steps in with other ideas. Or, resistance in some form rears its head.
Overwhelm happens when we forget that all we need to do is take a step. Then another and another, continuing on step by step allowing each step to reveal the next. When we do this moment by moment, day to day we have the potential to make huge progress on our journey.
The Beauty of Exploration - Hoar Frost on The Palouse - Pullman, Washington
It’s oh so simple, yet from time to time most of us find ourselves stopped, stuck, resisting anything resembling movement. For me, that’s the time to remember that my body doesn’t give a hoot about love, life or learning. It sees the new, the adventure, and growth as dangerous threats to its sole concern – survival.
Clever in its ways, the body throws out all manner of reasons to not participate in life. I’m tired. It doesn’t matter. It’s not worth it. I don’t know how. These are the cloaks my body wears to hide what I’m coming to understand is simply resistance. They are clues that I need to step up, challenge, and command my body to MOVE, to take a step, to be in action.
In responding to these clues I’m strengthening my ability to call forth my will. It helps me to remember that the journey of 1,000 miles begins with turning on the ignition and that the journey is complete mile by mile. The 2656 mile road that I took in December is a fresh reminder as I look ahead to what I want to accomplish in 2018.
I also find that engaging curiosity counters the lethargy of resistance. The simple shift from ‘I don’t know how’ to ‘I wonder how/what I can learn’ is powerful fuel for moving into action.
As I practice these skills, I notice that the creative force needed to engage in new experiences comes forth more naturally and that a gentle flow of life’s events seems to emerge. Step by step through these events I live, I love, I learn, I grow.
Step by step we can accomplish much in this year that is just beginning. May we each step fully into the energy that is always in motion!
Almost Home ... Sangres in the Distance