Personal growth
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Following your inner compass: “The Journey”
“And there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own.” — Mary Oliver The greatest gift of maturing is finding your own power and discovering who you are meant to be — not what others think you should be or want you to be. But the road to authenticity isn’t without obstacles. Mary Oliver’s “The Journey” gives us a new map. It’s one of my all-time favorite poems and has become a personal anthem. A great poem reminds us that the personal is universal, and this one brings shivers of recognition each time I read it aloud in my writing workshops. –CL THE JOURNEYBy Mary Oliver One…
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Living in the past?
“Nostalgia is also a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.” ~Brene Brown Psychologists believe acute nostalgia is a symptom of growing old — but I’m not so sure that’s true. I’ve been nostalgic since I was a kid. I’ve always preferred old houses and items with a history, and I find comfort in rereading passages from favorite novels with nostalgic themes. But I know there’s real danger in viewing the past through rose-colored lenses. We might long for a return to certain periods in history, assuming that life was somehow…
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Nobody wins the waiting game
“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” ~A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh Someone I know often complains that she rarely hears from some of her old friends and relatives. They’ve stopped calling to invite her out for lunch and other social activities. She’s sure she hasn’t “done anything” to deserve this neglect. Why have these people gone dark on her? Well, she’s right about the part where she said she hasn’t done anything. When I asked if she ever reaches out to initiate activities or simply keep in touch, she admitted that she rarely does. She…
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Creative cycles
“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks. Its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” ~Cynthia Occelli Nature often reminds us that growth and creativity are preceded by change or “complete destruction.” This is especially true in the fall. Here in the Midwest, some of our trees are just starting to drop their leaves and seeds, and soon will stage a brilliant color show before shedding completely. With that in mind, I’ve found that the best way through a creative block — or any sort of problem — is to…
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Embracing the unknown
“The unknown is where all outcomes are possible; enter it with grace.” ~Message on a Yogi teabag Later this morning, I’ll undergo a biopsy that was scheduled a few weeks ago and has been hanging over my head like an invisible question mark. At this point, I don’t know when the results will come back. Waiting is the hardest part. Most of us struggle with the unknown. The unknown is the gray area; a shadow of uncertainly; a blinking yellow light. The unknown leaves us at a crossroads without a map, and looms larger in an overactive imagination. Of course, life is jam-packed with uncertainties, large and small. Today’s quote…
