Opportunities Rare and Sweet

It is amusing to me that we work so very hard to stay diligent in our resistance to fear on a personal level.  We are determined to live in the present and not allow fear or guilt (fear being of the future, guilt being of the past) to influence our decisions in the present.  I think we are all clear by now that life totally in the present moment cannot contain fear or guilt…it is impossible.

 

However, when it comes to decisions as a collective body, say a country, we are swayed on a daily basis by fear and guilt.  We have fear of economic demise, fear of global calamity, fear of terrorists, fear of disease, and fear of each other.  We have guilt for all the perception of wrongs that went before us…which, in reality, were perfection.

 

Let us get past the fear of the phone ringing at 3 am, the disappearance of our retirement funds, the demise of our health care system and explore the possibilities of electing a leader.  He/she does not need to have “the plan” and all the answers.  Surely with the multi 1,000’s we have on our government payroll, the expertise is there.  What we need is leadership.  What we need is inspiration to step up, stand up and speak out; to be present; to be stronger and better than we were.

 

What is life, both individually and collectively, asking of us?  We do not need another flavor of what has gone before…we don’t have time for that.  What we need is out of the box leadership and inspiration…we can figure out the details. 

 

On a more personal note, I have been waiting for a great epiphany to tell me what was next in my own life.  What would my impact be on the world?  While I was waiting, I worked at staying open, blank and present for the great message to come.  I just knew “my assignment”  would be a life-changing, paradigm-altering message or legacy…my grandiose and lasting mark on the world for all time.

 

It has slowly started to come to me over these last few weeks that I just might not have a starring role.  I may not be a Madame Curie, Maya Angelou or Mother Theresa.  When I ask what the world needs from me instead of what I want for my life, which of course would be a leading role, the answers look quite different.  It could be that I have always been doing my life’s work without any thought, effort or divine message.

 

My life auditions to date have yielded me many, many roles:  Editor, Writer, Aerobics Instructor, Business owner, Consultant, Food and Beverage Director, Director of Sales, many mid-level management roles, Board Member and other volunteer opportunities too countless to remember, much less list, Friend, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Mother…and the list goes on and on. 

 

Perhaps that is it.  My impact on the world may be the unending moments in the Now, in the Present, to the thousands I have had the blessing and priviledge to instruct, lead and influence.  Simple: no headliner soloist, but a supporting role.  Moment to moment; day to day; year to year.  A lifetime of one small, rare and sweet opportunity at a time.  How simple; how powerful; how blessed. 

 

Jacquie

 

AAhhhhhh…I think I made it!

It is weeks like this past one that remind me why we live in and love northern Michigan.  Why we are able to put the long, dormant, cold and dark winter behind us so quickly.  Raking my yard yesterday where there was two feet of snow only days ago to find my tulips and daffodils, planted with such optimism last fall, three inches tall already!

 

 My first spring/summer experiences of Michigan in the mid 70’s astonished this six generation native Texas…everything grows so fast…you can literally watch it.  It is almost comical, especially to those who do not live here all the time, to see the first day when the thermometer tops 50 degrees.  The shirts come off, the shorts go on and flip flops replace the boots. Bikes, roller blades and Frisbees come out of the basement and everyone that can possibly be is outside.

 

 I am as guilty, or blessed, as the rest.  The top on the Miata went down, two days in a row, and those of you who are familiar with my summer rating system know the quality of the summer season is determined by how many top-down days we have…we are off to a great start! Quite often on a sunny, but cold, day in February/March I would position my car by the lake in way that the sun shown on my face; I would crank back my seat and “sun bathe”.  One of the great all-time feelings is that first day when the sun is on your face and it is really warm…for real this time

 

I have often equated the phenomenon to that of childbirth.  During the angst of the labor and delivery process, having more children is the last thing you would consider…shooting the person who assisted you in getting there would be higher on the list.  The moment it is over, however, and you make the first eye and skin contact with that brand new, so freshly created little miracle, you find yourself in awe and wonder and so ready to do it all over again.

 

As we suffer (I am speaking personally here…I know there those of you who love winter most) through the long and dark of it to immerge into those blissful days of sun and warmth, it is all forgotten, and of course we will do it all over again next year.  The contrast makes it all that much sweeter.

 

Experiencing life in a climate of severe winters is the ultimate contraction/expansion exercise.  Contracting during the winter is so very natural…just as the bears crawl into the cave and hibernate, it is my instinct to retreat, curl up, hunker down and go dormant.  The contrast then of the first week of warmth is the most blissful expansion from the hairs on my head to the nails of my toes and deep into every cell; I feel warm and joyful, blessed and exuberant.  I am as alive as it gets. Just as the release feels after the deep stretch, it is one of those Ah Hah moments that is so delicious and so precious. Ahhhh…I have made it!

 

Jacquie