"The only person you are destined to be is the person you decide to be."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our early transcendentalist, Emerson, gave us a pearl of wisdom on how our mindset can shape our experiences. Abraham Lincoln echoed this sentiment on mood when he stated something like: "We're as happy as we decide to be." While I can't reduce everything we encounter to mindset, without hesitation, I can say that independent of what we're experiencing, how and what we do with it, is one of the most beautiful aspects of being human. Here, we encounter ourselves and others in moments/periods of our lives of trial and error, at times, unskillful and messy reactions to life; and conversely, we can also experience the achievement of goals, triumphs over our adversities...some that felt insurmountable as we lived them.  

While this is so evident, and while there are many examples to inspire us, my experience is that it's much more difficult to live and assimilate a mindset that supports helpful choices without guidance in some form and the decision to dedicate oneself again and again to certain practices.  These can include habits that cultivate a spacious heart (compassion, kindness, forgiveness, love, understanding enacted as much as possible with self and others); a flexible and disciplined mind (including study, openness, curiosity and humility in NOT knowing all the answers and entertaining divergent views and in some areas being ok with what one may never know); and, courage to be uncomfortable and scared as we take action with our values and hopes in mind.

As we learn to set the mind in helpful ways, the inner self listens, intuits and/or something else such that the part that wants to dance, play, and embrace life unencumbered by the heaviness of what we inevitably will meet in our losses, in our loving, and being human, emerges more freely, tasting more of the delights that the wounded parts may have deprived us of in the past.

"The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries." Descartes

Isn't it a gift that reading can allow us to be in conversation with different minds, ideas, and manners of expression that are different from our own?  One of the greatest gifts we can so easily give ourselves is a daily practice of reading.  Of course, what we feed our mind will matter, and if we spend a little time each day, intentionally actively reading (applying, asking, arguing with the text), what a delightful and edifying conversation we have had!

"Liberty is the right to choose.  Freedom is the result of the right choice." Jules Renard

While one may argue to what extent we are free to choose and/or have different access to choices based on variables such as biological factors, environmental, and historical, undoubtedly, freedom is mostly internal and the extent to which we enact choice we know to be ennobling, we are free-even if our physical or environmental factors reflect otherwise.

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"...Break through your fears and assumptions.
Break through who you have been
And who you thought you should be,
Break through the limits of your imagination,
And awaken to the mysteries of life.

Awaken to the complexities of truth.
Awaken to who you are in your fullness.
And what is yours to do.
Wake and be present.
Wake up and live." by Rabbi Yael Levy

There is so much beauty and truth in R. Levy's words.  The aspirations here are the real work, practice and commitment to our own interior life.  Growing intimate with the self can facilitate moments of breaking through different limitations of the mind, the heart, and what we perceive as the mysteries of our lives.  And, with dedicated time in solitude, meditation, writing, among other practices that awaken clear seeing, we have moments of touching the fullness of our lives and meeting the complexities of truth with wonder-both our own and that of others!

"The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." Pascal

A mentor once shared with me: "We don't want headless hearts, and we don't want heartless heads."  This resonates deeply with me because while I love the power of the mind, Pascal's words capture the essence some of the most beautiful experiences in life: Love, mystical connections, acts of bravery, for example, hold a transcendence of their own-inexplicable solely by human reason.   

"In darkness there is no choice"  J.C and A.W Hare

When life meets a moment, or a series of moments of struggle, fear, disappointment, confusion or feelings of defeat, PAUSE, and resist the urge to hastily fix, change paths, give up, and/or fantasize about the comfortable and familiar.  Allow yourself time to settle a bit, and when the moments shift to a "better day," or even a good day, notice how the choices before you are quite different.   

In this way, we learn to be with the totality of human emotions and skillfully guide the self to decisions when one's heart, mind and body experience-within their own unique constitution-greater ease, clarity, and alignment with the parts of self that hold hopes, values, priorities, and gifts. 

 “The first act of insight is throw away the labels.” Eudora Welty
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I am: open, receiving, listening, learning, connected and curious…May I see beyond what the physical eyes can see; hear beyond what the ears can hear; touch-and be touched by-Life.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Ananis Nin
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What small step can strengthen your courage muscle today and how might small, consistent, cumulative practices expand your world?  Get curious and playful…Life wants your full participation in all that it’s offering.

“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” Joseph Campbell
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Listen…inside…awaken to your adventure- and respond with alacrity! You needn’t know all the steps.  They will reveal themselves to you as you unfold in Life’s longing for YOU…your unique gifts-to access, share and rest-in the awareness of their presence.  

May 2025 bring forth more individuals saying "yes" to their adventure.

"Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue.  It means a calling that I hear."  Parker Palmer

Parker Palmer in his book Let Your Life Speak notes that the Latin derivation of "vocation" is rooted in "voice."  Life speaks to us and can be a guide in our choices for our life's path.  Learning to discern and listen to your own voice, hopes, talents as they speak to you, independent of the well-intentioned messages you may have assimilated from family, friends or society at large can be helpful.  

Listen to the patterns, the synchronicities, the awakenings of the mind and heart when you engage in something.  Listen to your body...listen to the ease, the lightness, the fluidity of voice, the elongation of your spine, the curiosity of the moments. Listen to your heart: does she feel expansive, open, generous and warm?

Listen and be led to where Love is meeting you...