Hello beautiful human,
Yesterday I wrote a small made thing about all the lives we’ve lived within the one life. All the gifts those lives have to share and all the wisdom we can tap into by listening. Then I got up and went into the day, sorting mail, going to the grocery store, running errands…and somewhere along the way a small voice crept into my ear and whispered What about the lives we might not have lived yet?
I don’t believe in leaving stones unturned or whispers unheeded, so I paused and perked up my ears to feel into where that voice was coming from. Sure enough, one of my own past lives, a creativity coach, stepped forward from a few years ago. She sat down at the table with her butterfly wings and her gossamer shoes and asked me, How many clients did you work with who said “I wish I’d xxx” or “Someday I’ll aaa” or “I always wanted to 123"? And then they’d sigh, and shrug, and move on?
Yes, I nodded. It was that sigh that got me. Each time. That little shrug.
She looked at me for a long moment, Well I guess you know what to write about then. And she melted back into the Velvet Dark Forests of Mind. Leaving me with a blank page and a candle and a desire.
And maybe—probably—all right, for sure—all of this means I need to hear it all over again for myself too.
If you know me, you know I don’t believe in writing off possibilities. I don’t believe in “too late” or “shoulda woulda coulda.” I don’t believe in playing safe and small when the world awaits our gifts.
And. That doesn’t mean we have to overturn our lives or upset the carefully balanced apple carts. All along the way I’ve said: we can take this in tiny shifts. Find the easily reachable fruit from where we sit, as we are, where we are.
Wish you owned a boutique-y craft market with handmade wares in Door County? Maybe try a candle making kit at home.
Wish you were a baker creating wedding cakes for the rich and famous? Go get that box of Betty Crocker and get creative.
Sign up for a class.
Watch a youtube video.
Buy a magazine and just flip the pages and notice what resonates.
Because the truth is, the blueprints, maps and how-to instructions all wait within us, packed and juicy like seeds just waiting to be revealed. The way to reach Next starts with listening to what tiny next shift feels right, right now.
What is that for you today?
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