Look To yourself for inspiration
I found myself during the past two weeks thinking about you, your lives…I wanted this to be about you…you are already living inspired lives. That you are here tells me something more about you…that you are interested in voicing your thoughts, and that you are interested to know about the experiences that are lurking behind the faces and behaviors of other people…after all toastmasters has something to do with sharing humanity.
Here you are Friday Evening, and still at it…you’re sitting as if at rest, but your bodies and minds are still vibrating from the residual momentum of your well-paced lives. You’ve had a full week.
You can probably sense the whirring of the molecules of heat, light and language spinning off you as the energy of the day continue to move through your body.
Career, child-raising, mortgage, relationships, family obligations, how many organizations…and don’t forget having to live in a body…..as zorba said, The Whole Catastrophe!! He meant the Whole Godsend, the whole Blessing! Because the value in being a good householder is beyond measure.
Do you need a higher lifting of your spirit than that?
Maybe there is something I can do….When my wife and I drive our dogs to the river for a walk, we load them in the crates in the back of the CRV. When we arrive we have to help the old collie off the back of the car…we give her a gentle lift down-- back on the ground.
And that riverwalk has become our Place…not far from FTB….a bend in the river, braced by the trees that feather the sunlight …a place muted from all but the natural sounds of river rushing over rocks and the wind brushing against leaves. What does your place look like? When is it your time?
Where do you find yourself?
Let me remind you of your humanity….
When others back down from the occasion you ARISE
When others are at odds, you’re EVEN
When others are no shows, you’re there because it must go on!
You often exceed expectation and maybe you even find yourself stirred on by being on that edge.
It truly is a wonder you don’t meet yourself coming around the corner….
Think of all you’ve done this past week…let alone your past life…if it is flashing by now you’re have a near-life experience
Pull your energy back from the day…give yourself an injection of Solitude in a Crowd
You’re called on to do so much…now call yourself back….it’s OK if you’re not always doing something with someone else.
Our language has so many words that ask us to relive our experiences..Remember, recollect, recall remind yourself of all you do… you are engaged in this life and your commitment is as much a part of who you are as your pulse because it originates from a profound source within you…
…now, just for a moment, steal away from life…maybe you can get all the way to your place on your time…I know people who do all kind of things to return to themselves....they repeat silently a prayer, carry prayer beads, sense their breathe, carry a photo or quote in their wallet….or actually listen to their voice, toastmasters, when they talk…some even use the 10 minute breaks the state mandates to disappear…I know someone who walks to his car in the parking lot to retrieve something he knows is in his desk drawer…anything that helps you break the inertia of habit and routine…because the important thing is to be left with yourself….
think of all the messages others leave for you…voice mail, email, text…there not really for you…they’re demand energy asking you for one more thing…what if the one more thing you do, is leave a message for yourself??.it doesn’t have to be a .fanfare, or amplified gesture of gratitude, not even a great take-away for yourself….do you really need those?—perhaps a simple recognition of the grace you receive in being able to fully enter into your own life….affirm and validate yourself…leave a message of tenderness.
There are a 100 small threshholds you get to go through each the day…the front door to your home, the door to your office, the door of your car, the conference room, the kitchen, …and certainly the opening of every conversation…
Each time-- you enter a new space and have a new chance to find yourself and be the good steward of your life two statements I know to be undeniably true…or they are my most wished for delusions
That you have chosen your commitments to others because they help you find yourself
And that there is a place where everything you have said and done is saved, that those acts and words have a weight and substance even as blood does that will bring you back to yourself and fuel your commitments. Your own authentic energy is there.
When so much of what appears today to be reality is staged, remind yourself that there is a glory in what you do each day….
And since you will end up giving yourself away anyhow, remember that those gifts of your time are what make you so deeply human. Just don’t forget about yourself. Every night recall all that you have done. It is always your place, it is always your time.