A Transformative Year of Delight and Discovery - January

                 
                       

Quotes from Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life by Sarah Ban Breathnach

"January, the month of new beginnings and cherished memories, beckons.  Come, let winter weave her wondrous spell:  cold, crisp, woolen-muffler days, long, dark evenings of savory supers, lively conversations, or solitary joys.  Outside the temperature drops as the snow falls softly.  All of nature is at peace.  We should be, too.  Draw hearthside.  This is the month to dream, to look forward to the year ahead and the journey within."

Day 1:  A Transformative Year of Delight and Discovery

"Only dreams give birth to change.  Gradually, as you become curator of your own contentment, you will learn to listen to the gentle yearnings of your heart."

Today's offering was helpful because too often dreams seem like luxuries.  But I now realize that change is inevitable and not to fight it so much....and maybe not at all.  Instead, I should continue to dream my dreams because they mean positive change and maybe, just maybe, they will hold the negative changes life brings at bay or at least soften them.

Day 2:  Loving the Questions

"What if you knew a year from today you could be living the most creative, joyous, and fulfilling life you could imagine?  What would it be?  What changes would you make?  How and where would you begin?"

"The answers to your questions will come, but only after you know which ones are worth asking."

This is one I need to print out on a card and read every day.  I have a vague idea of the kind of life I want to be living a year from now and have been taking steps to make it happen.  But I realize I need to be more intentional about the details.  For instance, I am walking a mile a day on the elliptical toward my goal of being healthier.  I am going to bed earlier to get the hour I miss because no matter what time I go to bed I get up at the same time in the morning out of habit.  And the days I get up even earlier, I take a nap.  But in the area of my creative endeavors I've yet to establish a routine.  Writing this blog will be a part of establishing a writing routine.

Day 3:  What are you Doing the Rest of your Life?  

"A beginning is ultimately an invitation to open toward the gifts and growth that are stored up for us.  To refuse to begin can be an act of great self neglect."

That word "self-neglect" jumped out at me.  I've been known to complain about feeling neglected when I now realize "not beginning" the work necessary to fulfill my dreams is self-neglect!  Not being one to ask for attention I have no control over others neglecting me, but I certainly do have control over neglecting myself!

Day 4:  Things Come Suitable to Their Time

"You don't think your way into a new kind of living.  You live your way into a new kind of thinking."  --Henri J. M. Nouwen

"...finding the sacred in the ordinary is such an unexpected and comforting revelation, sure to nourish souls and heal broken hearts."

"When we can learn to be kind to ourselves in small, nurturing ways we'll find unexpected rewards."

Henri Nouwen is certainly right about that.  While thoughts precede action, they change nothing.  Only taking action on the thought will move me in the direction I want to go.  Until the thought is "acted out" it is not reality.  It takes time, i.e. practice, to truly change.  Once we change, our thinking becomes more than just thoughts.  It's wisdom.

Day 5:  Simple Abundance: The Inner Journey

"When we can't access our inner resources, we come to the flawed conclusion that happiness and fulfillment come only from external events.  That's because external events usually bring with them some sort of change.  And so we've learned to rely on circumstances outside ourselves for forward or backward momentum as we hurtle through life.  But we don't have to do that any longer.  We can learn to be the catalysts for our own change."

Oh, this is so true!  It's why I thought I had to move in order to become more creative.  I can be the catalyst for my own change wherever I am.

Day 6:  This Isn't a Dress Rehearsal

"Like an actress going through the motions to conserve her creative energy and focus for opening night we hold back....None of us can be expected to perform every minute of our lives.  But a lot more of us might tap into the power, excitement, and glory of real life more frequently if, for once, we cast ourselves as leading ladies in our own lives."

All through my 20s I did not live in the present.  It was always "in two years I will do this or that."  "In two years we will start our family."  "In two years I will quit my job."  I was so busy planning what I'd be doing in two years I missed most of what I was doing during those years.  Once I had children (after 10 years) I was forced to live each day as it came.  I will be forever grateful to them.  But now that they have all flown the nest, I have fallen back into my "default" setting, and I really must stop it!  I will become the leading lady in the life called "Cathy."

Day 7:  The Woman You Were Meant to Be

"Many women today feel a sadness we cannot name...What's wrong is that we are disconnected from an authentic sense of self." --Dr. Emily Hancock

"Turn away from the world this year and begin to listen...to the whispers of your heart.  Look within.  Your silent companion has lit lanterns of love to illuminate the path to wholeness.  At long last, the journey you were to take has begun."

Yes, at long last!  Won't you join me?