This is both an update and an invitation for you and for me to invoke gentle change where it is needed.
Reflecting and taking stock informs our lives so that we can change to be fulfilled.
We humans have natural and different ways of being in the world, of responding and processing information and events.
Mine is a highly sensitive, emotional, empathetic way that is as flood-like as ever, though tempered now by reason, self-management and a wise inner voice.
The impact of certain events is momentous, the emotional volume loud – and I tire significantly from the excess of it as it washes through me.
Writing saves me, informs me. I find myself through it.
Living is an emotional, visceral experience, ever-changing, and the last few months have filled all spaces.
A sea-change of artists and appreciators
The annual Eastside Culture Crawl in Vancouver is complete. A magnificent 4-day event where the people of the city who love art and its many expressions visit local studios.
The Crawl began earlier for us, moving and cleaning equipment, painting walls, scrubbing, setting up the space, sending social media announcements and attending the pre-Crawl events.
Though my husband is mostly a custom metal work fabricator, he has come to make some beautiful artistic objects, one of which was selected by a jury for a gallery event.
The kindness of the people who work to create the Crawl and those who visited, was heartening.
I met so many lovely people enjoying the gentle and accommodating blacksmith fabricator who would turn on the forge and demonstrate his craft to adults and children alike.
A four-oh birthday celebration
At the same time, I was creating an album for my daughter’s 40th birthday – the big change-over. I wanted something special to mark that occasion.
Gathering photos and love notes from members of her family everywhere, getting contact information, prodding after the deadline, editing each photo, I pored over that for weeks. putting it together in some techy, online way.
Reading through the loving notes from her family, seeing pictures of people whom I had known 40 years ago, the memory of life at its various stages, the regrets, all raised a swell of unexpected emotions.
In the end, after a brief encounter with the ghosts of decades past, I remembered the words of Maya Angelou that always help me with self-forgiveness, paraphrased here as,
We do better when we know better.
The words of others have often helped the change process, making space in the tight quadriceps of my mind, expanding its contracted world.
But we have our own words and forms to get out there in the world.
The day before her birthday was the main prize. Her dad, whom I hadn’t seen in 10 years, came in from Montreal to surprise her and despite missed flights, rain, changes in venue, partners who were working and then finished early, it all came together.
A special event for a woman with heart.
I never miss giving thanks and marking her birthday as the day her dad and I brought her into the world. Who can ever forget that?
A new birth, changing everything
So as all this was going on since mid-October, and so much more that was momentous even then, including receiving an unexpected award, I could feel an inner prodding.
What is to be birthed next to make a difference for others in the world?
What needs to be done, said, lived, loved?
What is of most importance now?
Each in our own way, our contributions matter.
When we find what we love, what calls and moves us, and when we create something from that, honing and redefining as we go, our uniqueness will produce something that no one has ever experienced before.
The drive to compare will cease when we know this.
We are on a journey of discovery and of coming to the centre of our own precious jewel.
We do this by making spacious time for our inner work, for sorting through to what is essential, for knowing ourselves intimately, and for keeping on re-evaluating who we want to be in the world, as we learn more.
To do otherwise, to distract ourselves from what we are here to do and who we are to be is to abandon ourselves, often for mediocrity, until we can’t stand our lives.
Then, if we are lucky, we make a break and hear ourselves say, “I wish I had started this part of the journey earlier. It’s so late.”
Fortunately, it is never too late. Insight may take but a second. A new perspective lights the way and changes everything.
Unfortunately, we never know how long we have.
What is of utmost importance now?
Find it and go there. Yes. You, too.
Change is not as frightening as we tell ourselves.
Stagnation is deadly. Suffering is deadly.
Change. What a relief.
Late fall is a wonderful time to plant the seeds for a new, creative beginning of your own.
We women work hard being and doing for others.
What is it that is of your own, that needs to be seen, done, known?
What sharp cusp are you sitting on?
If a gentle chat would be a good start, you can reach me here.
I am committed to a marketing-free conversation.
I’ve been through the agony of the sales pitch zoo and refuse to participate.
I serve you first so that you can see what’s up for you.
When it’s a Hell Yes! for both of us, we’ll know and proceed. But only then.
In the meantime, you may want to read some other contemplative pieces like this or this.
If you’re willing to share, I’d love to hear about what’s waiting to be birthed in your world. Truly, I would love to hear.
With love and respect for your journey,
Miriam