The idea has been germinating for a while now… time for a bit more sunlight and perhaps some water.
I just got home from celebrating Thanksgiving with my daughter and simultaneously one of those high (HUGE) number birthdays. A student of life for life makes selecting a gift for me pretty easy… it will usually be a book.
Of course selecting the right book may be a bit more difficult. While I have, and yes use, a Kindle and enjoy a fairly expansive audiobook library, the real treat is well a real paper book… preferably a hardback or at least a quality paperback. It can be most any genre: fiction, history, a large swath of science, self help, reflection or spiritual, as long as some exclusive dogma is not being pushed. Topping the cake is a quiet and sunny place to read, reflect and absorb the life changing energy woven into the pages.
To that extent, this year was no exception from that proven path to birthday bliss. The gift: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. While the rest of our party was doing that Black Friday thing at a nearby Shopping spot, my oldest grand daughter and I remained in the car warmed with the sun shining through the windshield of the SUV and the door ajar to admit a waft of fresh air… each independently lost in our own world of discovery.
I was quickly lost in the images and story the author created in the recounted memories of a man that she had never met… at least directly; but, who had impacted her life and thinking in a profound way… Encouragement to live courageously.
Not far into the book, I in my empathetic and perhaps emotional connective way began to re-learn lessons forgotten for a while. Inspired to change directions a bit toward the end story of my life… living again where my heart resides rather than being totally captive to the rigors and demands that I am unable to walk away from with impunity.
Even though my years are becoming advanced, there remains a sizable collection of things left to do… things that I want to do. As so many, I have allowed myself to get trapped in an all or nothing kind of mentality that keeps me enslaved to the status quo. Bound up by the fear that I’ve waited too late, don’t have enough time left to accomplish anything meaningful, can’t make a living doing what I want to do… and the list of excuses goes on and on.
What I can do is to continue to learn and to feel. I can still experiment and give. I can become a part-time giver and who knows where that will lead. But I know it is a first step and that is the hardest step.
I hope you will join me on this journey… to a better life.