Hello beautiful human,
I’m turning things around today and starting with the personal peek behind the scenes that usually lives behind a paywall or two.
Some days wake up heavy. An ugly little troll sits on my heart today and mutters “bah!” and spits on the ground when I mention any good thing. It’s as though I’m on the underside of my life, the dark side of the moon where there is no sun and no chance of it either. I know how I got here: I had a hard, messy weekend that required me to look back over past choices and patterns. Along the way a couple of negative people crossed my path and insisted on interrupting my resilience. So I woke up today tired and worn, and when one thing feels hard everything starts to feel hard. All I want is a soft place to curl up and be held and unfortunately Monday has different ideas.
And just as I write that last sentence, the troll on my heart looks up and out of its warty mouth I hear Princess Buttercup from The Princess Bride: “You mock my pain!”
“Life IS pain, Highness,” replied the Dread Pirate Roberts. “Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.”
Some days wake up heavy. And that’s okay. I’m grateful that the troll knows the Princess Bride by heart and can quote it appropriately with all the voices. Thank you for that, I said. I needed to hear it. You know that’s one of the most perfect movies ever made.
He nodded, shrugged and sidled off my heart, finding a place to sit on my desk. A much better perch. That’s not the whole story either, he acknowledged. Life is pain. And perfect movies. And small shifts every day. And people. Wonderful, mixy, people. It’s almost disgusting how mixy you all are…but not quite. His voice is gravelly but not as unpleasant as I expected. So my little companion and I have found common ground: life is pain…and that is not all it is.
So now that I’ve cleared a little more heart space and made friends with a troll, once again, Monday brings with it our weekly Call to (Inter) (Inner) Action, our Mission Possible…a chance to reach beyond our limited scope, when we walk a little wider into the world or dive a little deeper into the green depths of mind, in order to connect to a world larger than ourselves and just slightly beyond our human-shaped understandings.
Today I’m thinking about how to find
serenity to accept the things I cannot change
courage to change the things I can
wisdom to know the difference.
I think it’s actually that last piece I really need. Courage and serenity I usually mostly have, but when misapplied they don’t help as much as usual. Too often, I’ve serenely accepted things I maybe could have tried to change. Too often, I’ve bumped and poked against things that weren’t ever going to budge and I only hurt myself and others in keeping on attempting the impossible. It doesn’t feel great to admit that, but I agreed to keep showing up here messy and maybe somewhere in there you can relate a little bit.
So how to know when things can change, and when they can’t? Where to find wisdom?
You probably know what I’m going to say, especially on a Monday… I find a lot of wisdom in the natural world around us. And my Qoya teachers remind me that when we want to come to the world with an ask, a request, a need, we start with a gift. Specifically, the gift of gratitude. Here is a single, powerful sentence from Robin Wall Kimmerer:
“It is human perception that makes the world a gift.”
Deep breath and repeat. It is human perception. The world is a gift.
Another of my teachers, Carolyn Elliott, introduced me to the idea that we can be radically grateful even for the difficult things. It is human perception. The difficult world is a gift.
Today, I’ll find a way to say thank you and give the world outside my windows a gift in gratitude. Because every shift, every possibility, begins in gratitude.
Gratitude Dance
Maybe it’s sharing bird seed or peanut butter pine cones. Maybe it’s making a pretty design on a rock with flower petals. Maybe it’s floating a leaf downstream with a wish. Maybe it’s simply taking in the view and feeling that much richer. Whatever and wherever you find it, what gift can you give back today as a way of expressing gratitude to the wild world we’re housed by? Everything begins with gratitude and Monday is a good day for beginnings.
Mission: Possible. But if you want the theme music from that other kind of mission to inspire you, here you go.
Don’t be afraid to go beyond the original Mission Possible. Follow your inclinations and inspirations and see what arises… Let the week take you playfully where it will, if you will.
Today’s invitation: If you don’t love my Mission Possible above, if you don’t feel inspired by it, there’s always the option to invent another one for yourself. Find some small step or act here at the start of the week that can take you just slightly outside of your usual rounds and routines. Follow your nose out into the day and through the hours and keep awake for the assignment. It might surpise you.
Looking to grow the connection and the energy? Here are some possibilities:
Your attention and time are the true gifts. Thank you. xoS
"Life is pain. And perfect movies." Fantastic.