“One must know the so-called ‘lesson of a downpour.’ A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo

“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” – Dave Berry

Yes … a life spent near or at the surface was interrupted by a sudden, deep dive … and a whole new world was revealed. A world that now calls me deeper each day, and continues to reveal treasures I’ve never dreamt. Now the challenge is to discover ways to hold my breath longer so that I can explore more and more of all the newness before me.

Life is change … life is a journey … life is sweet.

“Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight and focused attention.” – Deepak Chopra

“Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.” – Brene Brown

How sweet it feels to be connected. Connection at many levels … loving feelings towards comrades … deeper love held toward close friends … and the strongest feelings of love held towards those whose hearts are joined beyond understanding.  

I’m learning to move through life from a place of kindness and love. As I do, I experience these connections. Each connection harmonizes with my inner song … the song that reflects “me”. The song is heard at many volumes. And the deeper the connection the stronger the harmony … the sweeter the feeling brought from the synchronization between beings.

For years I believed I was a “loner” … not meant to be engaged in groups or with others … more comfortable alone and within myself. And though moments of quite aloneness are stilled valued and many times needed, my true core now strongly desires connecting at a deep level. More and more it is revealed … I am a creature of connection … seeking connection at many levels and in many ways. And now I seek … hunt for opportunities to connect … connect with my tribe and team, connect with groups I lead or help, connect with close friends, and connect within my love relationship.

Connection brings feelings … sweet feelings … feelings that resonate within me, telling me it is me and that this is my path. So I will continue to create … seek … and feel connections, and each day will become richer for having made that discovery and for choosing to live my life in the harmony of connection.

A man’s journey is his path whether he understands and accepts it or not. Along the way is life … those chapters about one’s journey offering stories of how our hour-by-hour living affected our emotions. At times these chapters connect in a manner offering a tale of growth and learning. At times these chapters seem random, disconnected, and fogged by struggles to understand. But good or bad, connected or disconnected, clear or confused, these chapters are written each day we breathe. Our “novel of life” forms, grows, and reflects our walk through life … along our path. It is our soul’s journal … its tool to recount what’s needed for it to become whole. It’s our journal … our tool to reflect and see lessons learned or missed while life passes under our feet.

“It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.” – Wayne Dyer

A close, loving friend asked me recently about my writing. She asked “Do you write about the lessons’ you have learned along your journey?”. The question made me reflect on all that has passed beneath my feet over the past year. Much has occurred … much has changed … much is felt and has caused insightful work to unfold towards greater self-understanding. And change, greater awareness, and self-discovery still occurs each day as I move through my life and down my path.

I have taken many steps … many small and a few large steps … and each step along the journey has changed me … enabled me to grow … reminded me that much work remains … shown me fears that block my progress … and allowed me to remain vulnerable because I am constantly shown that within vulnerability arises understanding and growth.

In looking back across the path I’ve traveled … lessons that jump out include:

• I discovered my feelings … After so many, many years I finally found what it is to truly feel!  This was huge!  This created the foundation to move forward … gave me a compass against which all other things are measured and assessed.  This was likely the biggest “ah ha” for me since 2013, and such a joyous discovery.  It’s all about feelings.
• I found my power, gave it away, then discovered how to gain it back … I moved from and through old scripts that left me “giving” my power away to a place where I am able to consciously retain my strength from a place of loving kindness.  My strength comes from knowing my intentions are pure and my actions come from this foundation … coming from a place of love while still reflecting my interests.  I also see that there remains more to learn here since times still arise where old scripts or fears allow me to give away power that I rightful should retain.
• I saw that the universe will give in its own time … I gave up (am giving up) the need to know what lies ahead.  I trust and move down my path knowing what is meant to be will be.  There is a freedom that comes with that … but also a need to abandon an old script to see and control my future.  It remains a work in progress but growth and progress has been achieved.
• I found that living in love feels right and feels good … I found through my newly acquired feelings that living in love … being love … offering love to the world I move in brings warming and nurturing feelings to my heart.  These are deep, resonating feelings telling me a strong story of alignment with what is my song … my dance.  Though I drift into judgmental or angry space at times, I clearly see and “feel” that standing in loving space is what feeds my soul.
• I discovered trust … Learning to let go of “knowing”, trying to control, and “feeling” the true deep indicators that moving in certain directions feeds me joy, has allowed me to trust that what I need will be revealed to me when I need it.  I move through many transitions in my life … every day it seems … so knowing that I can release myself form wondering if the right things will pass … and allow the universe to simply reveal … has given me the space to move forward even thought I do not know all the answers.
• I discovered that being vulnerable leads to change and growth … I see the value and gift that comes from opening myself up … showing my flaws and fears so that I can explore deep into them to understand, then discard them … allowing me to take another step on my journey. Along with this comes the willingness to change … be give up who I was in order to take on a more genuine me.  It also includes becoming comfortable with the uncertainly of what I may come since I’m changing into something I am not sure of.  It is dancing to move while still learning the steps.

I have learned more … much more … and the learning continues each and every day. It is my life now … filled with change, challenged to understand, but willing to let go and just take what “is”. A giant jigsaw puzzle which gathers a piece at a time … sometimes several … as things come together and a picture is formed. What a dance to enjoy as I move to a place not known.

“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, ‘Where’s the self-help section?’ She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.” – George Carlin

 I rise in love this morning … a bit sleepy, but reflecting … I do a lot of that these days. I spend time “Unfolding” … visualizing my heart opening … being vulnerable … visualizing embracing the day and what will be presented me by the Universe as I listen for my song … the “harmony” revealing my passion and purpose.

I step along many paths these days … each headed in a similar direction but each addressing different goals. All this movement is collaboration within me … for me … meant to discover pieces awaiting to be assembled into my puzzle … the puzzle defining me. It is an interesting sensation.

I move down these paths … wrapped in feelings of peace … excited about encountering my next lesson … knowing there is change all around me as well as waiting for me just up ahead. I am changing … morphing … moving into and through such different inner places … my whole world is being seen and felt in such different colors right now. It is so different. I feel it has substance but part of me wonders if it is a passing moment of bliss coloring my life. But as the count of days increases where I feel this new, exciting, and confusing way, my mind says “it is real” and lasting.

Life has given me so very much … I am a man of great inner wealth … great love wanting to be shared … great creativity wanting to be expressed … great desires wanting to make a difference in this world. It surfaces feelings deep and strong. It is this transition … this journey I am on where I want to take each step … peacefully … but always forward into change. I “feel” like I walk in darkness while the sun shines brightly and warmly upon my face. It all is such an experience … an experience never before felt but now desired because I know it is taking me on my journey … it is my contract with those souls I touch and the forces that created the “All” comprising the Universe.

So … I write as a man in transition this morning. Feeling “feelings” richly and saying inner mantras that encourage me to remain vulnerable and move into the unknown. I hold out my hand to those I love … say “join me for some of my walk” … and know they are part of my puzzle and meant to walk along with me as I discover myself. I thank those I touch so very much for joining me … being present … allowing me to touch them in small, spiritual ways with my heart. It “feels” like it is an important piece in my puzzle … an important stepping stone that seems to travel with me along my path.

Life is a collaboration of all of us, touching each other with love and kindness so that those touched may touch others and so on, and so on, and so on … until our planet is love and everyone has found their path to their purpose.

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” – John Muir

Moments of awareness … moments of pleasure … moments where the inner noise fades away into deep calm. Yesterday I sat on the deck of a close, loving friend. Her yard offers a collage of nature … color, shapes, texture, and sound. Sitting there I was serenaded … offered special moments inside an auditorium of unanticipated opportunity.

I listened to the trees sing their chorus of peaceful bliss, directed by the wind. Each separate type of tree, each with their own voice, each with their own place, limbs, leaves, and style added their unique song to the blended whole. A symphony of natural rhythms and sounds. Their peaceful song filled my heart … and as my heart filled my soul soared. Their blended harmony surrounded my soul. It sharpened my awareness. It triggered feelings of deep calm and love. I felt my inner peacefulness so much deeper than before. It was such a loving gift … and all for free … it just required listening with awareness. A lesson proving useful in many ways.

“Notice when your heart leaps up in joyous exuberance … In these moments the voice of your spirit is speaking directly to you.” – Justine Willis Toms

 This has been a week swimming in exhaustion and change. Though feeling more rested but still in need of more recovery, I feel at peace today.

I detect a newer, clearer message. I can touch feelings today that are coming from within me … my growing awareness of spending my days during the week doing what does not feed my soul … and it leaves feelings of living my life beneath my calling and purpose. Only a small, highly personal aspect of each day resonates, but most is spent responding to the complexities of an organization and its bureaucracy rather than improving people’s lives.

It is my intention to align with my purpose …my passion … what truly resonates for me … a greater good of improving lives. I can only imagine how it will feel when alignment finally occurs in the future … how rich that will feel … it gives me more reason to open my life to choices leading me there. It is clearer today … as I patiently continue my dance of small steps toward my future and a life offering richer fulfillment.

I am at a new place of change … one of greater significance … a clearer realization of where I stand but where I need to go. Where once stood a warrior now stands a seeker of peace … a realization that at my core is harmony, love, peaceful movement through time, and the desire to touch people’s lives in a way that makes a difference … all resting within this human frame as it searches for greater awareness. I am in search of spiritual cleansing so that years spent in unawareness can be washed away … leaving space that is clear and ready to receive the new, more genuine me. The “noise” from the old clutters what can be … occupies room that might hold my new joy rather than residual fragments of my past. The old needs to be scrubbed clear … dug out of the cracks and crevasses. Cleansing while gaining awareness … more intentions to formulate … more to discover in process and approach … more to ask of the Universe as guidance to allow me to move to my full potential.

This moment of change is significant, causing me to feel deeply and completely … feel like I soar into the heavens filled with rich inner love and spirit. It offers me a glimpse of what might be and what truly feeds my thirsty soul. The feelings raise me to a place that exists above the world I live in day-to-day at a thing called work. When I soar, I am in the moment and experience peaceful detachment. Again, a glimpse of what might be once I discover my path’s offering and the waiting purpose and passion of my life. There is a wonderful peace that comes from such a view … from such loving observation. It is a place where love prevails and the lightness of “light” filling one’s soul brings warm, healing peace. To touch it is joy … and to touch it brings hope that more may exist as I travel down my path. There are no expectations, but there is trust. It will be what it is meant to be.