Photo by Marius Ciutacu on Unsplash
Happy Friday, you lovely creature! 🐉 I am grateful for you and for another day on planet Earth.
The sun rises in the morning, although often, it feels like I’m waiting for the next sunrise.
One a hundred days away, when perhaps life will be a bit more clear.
But the answers I assume will change my life are out of my grasp, not readily attainable because maybe, they’re not supposed to be.
We’re all going through this mystery together.
We’re in the mud. It doesn’t make sense.
We have the choice—to navigate the darkness curiously, boldly, and with reverence for what we can’t comprehend, or timidly and discouraged.
In the brilliant book, Mastery, Robert Greene discusses a letter that the poet John Keats wrote to his brother in 1817, explaining what he called negative capability:
“The world around us, he wrote, is far more complex than we can possibly imagine. With our limited senses and consciousness, we only glimpse a small portion of reality. The only solution for an enlightened person is to let the mind absorb itself in what it experiences, without having to form a judgement on what it all means.
The mind must be able to feel doubt and uncertainty for as long as possible. As it remains in this state and probes deeply into the mysteries of the universe, ideas will come that are more dimensional and real than if we had jumped to conclusions and formed judgements early on. Truly creative people in all fields can temporarily suspend their ego and simply experience what they are seeing, without the need to assert a judgement, for as long as possible.”
Every day when living in the unknown, we create our reality with the decisions we make.
I choose to be happy where I am, with utmost gratitude for what I have—a body that works, love all around me, something to dedicate myself to no matter how the world around nor the sand below my feet shifts—writing, learning, and continually pushing against the boundaries of who I am and what I can be.
I choose to move, however slightly, every day; to feel the sunlight on my skin and feel the worry fade away.
I choose to focus on the simple things, what I can control—my reactions, forgiveness for myself and others, and treating this world as family.
So, if you’re wondering what to do when life feels out of your control, take it from Keats: allow your mind and your body to absorb themselves in this experience, and begin to investigate.
Ask questions without needing an answer. Look at simple things in new ways, like a child who’s never experienced the subtleties of life.
I believe this perspective shift will make life more interesting; I hope it can help you, as it’s helping me, to see this time as anything but a roadblock.
We’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.
I'm psyched to announce that I'm now the inspiration editor for the Medium publication, Coffee Times! ☕️
I'd love to read and publish your writing, so check out how to get involved below!
If you are not yet a writer for Coffee Times, you
can do so 👉 here
Featured Story of the Week
The Moment That Will Change Your Life Patiently Waits to Bloom
I wrote a lot of poetry this week... Enjoy!
It Was Always Right Here Where We Are
One Warm Day
Ideas All Around Us
What Does It Mean to Feel?
Lost In Our Mundane Existence
Crescent Moon
What I'm Reading: T.S. Elliot, Four Quartets
My stepmom Eileen Davidson, who just so happens to be the guest on this week's episode of The Dare to Dream Podcast, gave me this book for Christmas. 🍂
She showed me that she marked this passage when she was my age, and I think I understand why:
"I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
Wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet Faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in The waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not
Ready for thought;
So the darkness shall be the light,
And the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild theme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, point to the agony
Of death and birth.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to
Get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at where you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not."
Latest Episode:
DTD #55: Thriving in the Unknown, Reinventing Yourself, & Leaning Into Love with Actress and Soap Opera Superstar Eileen Davidson
Actress and daytime soap star Eileen Davidson followed her heart at an early age and has been thriving in the unknown ever since.
We’re all going through this mystery together. We’re in the mud. It doesn't make sense. We have the choice to lean into the uncertainty and embrace it, or let it swallow us up.
What we learn while navigating difficult times gives us the foundation to shine even brighter when the answers eventually come. This episode is full of love and wisdom from a creative soul who’s been through the ups and downs of following her path. You don’t want to miss it!
If the podcast makes your week a little brighter, please rate and review the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Final Goodz🤟🏻:
🎵 Music lyric of the week 🎵
I've cried to this song, more than once..
"Though I liked summer light on you
If we ride a winter-long wind
Well time's not what I belong to
And you're not the season you're in"
—I'm Not My Season, Fleet Foxes
That is it for this week fam! To a glorious weekend ahead. 💙
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Cheers!