How It Went

Hi. Good morning!

Back in January I wrote this:

I decided to commit, 100%, to what I call the Power of the Mind. It’s a full-on experiment in what can happen if I choose a positive mindset all day, every day.

And this:

So in this new year I am watching myself, catching myself, choosing joy all the time and observing, with curiosity, what happens. I’m looking around me for information about where my life is headed, what I should be doing. I pay attention to what people are saying, what books are showing up, who calls, what opportunities are presenting.

Phew. I was really full of the p + v that comes with a new year, apparently.

I thought that since we’re now edging toward the closing of the year I should review and update, for those of you who have been along for the ride since January.

First, all day, every day was definitely a twee overzealous and exceedingly, excessively hopeful on my part.

The only thing I can and do do all day every day is breathe, and for that I’m grateful. Full stop.

I can report, however, that something very curious happened along the way this past year. What began as an experiment that required a great deal of effort morphed, slowly, surely into life.

In other words, living as if eventually became life.

In the beginning I was constantly catching myself, catching my thinking and rerouting. It wasn’t easy. It required a level of vigilance that reminded me what it was like when I had my first newborn, when I was constantly checking to see if he was breathing, if his diaper needed changing, if he was warm enough. Exhausting but worth the effort.

I found that, over time, I was inspired to try new things. I taught small classes and workshops in spiritual wellness and death and dying. I put new parts of myself out there, unsure of what was up ahead, and I loved it. I loved stretching and experimenting. I loved offering to the world the things I knew in a bunch of different ways. I remembered how much I love teaching.

That love became courage. During the year I decided to choose an end date for my work as a pastor, without any idea what would come next.

When I had the opportunity to lease an office space in Saratoga, NY, where I grew up, I took it, even though I didn’t know what I would use it for.

Slowly that space is becoming a small place of quiet refuge where I can meet with people to talk about their life and to connect with those in spirit. I think of one of my favorite children’s books, The Big Orange Splot, in which a man turns his house into something that looks like all of his dreams, then his neighbors come, one by one, in the evening, to sit with him and talk about their dreams. It’s the best book ever and you should get a copy. Daniel Pinkwater.

The work that I do in that little space on Spring Street brings me endless joy. I’m bringing all that I have learned and studied and practiced and all that I believe into the world, into peoples’ lives, hoping it will help them live satisfying and meaningful days and the amount of joy I feel doing this is practically absurd.

I don’t need to go into a long-winded explanation about how this all played out:

In the early days of the year I worked to choose joy, to reroute my thinking, to live a new way. It required effort and intention.

In the process I became more courageous and took more risks.

In time I found that I could more easily access my intuition. I would describe this as I became more aware of the contents of the map of my soul.

Taking more chances brought me opportunities that have, because I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing with my life, generated a bottomless well of joy. I love what I’m doing and it turns out that love and joy walk hand in hand through life.

Other things that happened: I studied, traveled and spent a lot of time alone and outdoors, integrating, contemplating and expressing my deep and genuine gratitude that I’m still here. I learned the power of No. For the first time in thirty years I am not parenting kids in Vermont. I mourned that reality for a moment then embraced the freedom. My son got married, my daughter started college and my other son moved across the country. Some friends got very sick and some friends died.

I can tell you without hesitation that you have more power than you know to set the course of your life. It starts with your thoughts—what you choose to think and believe about the life you’re living—and it radiates from there.

I chose joy and that generated courage and that gave birth to changes that have allowed me to live more authentically, doing what I love, what I was born to do, thus producing joy naturally, without effort.

Make no mistake! None of this is passive, this is the work of your life. When I say without effort I mean that things flow, there are no blockages. But I show up for this every day (OK, most days), and I keep studying and experimenting and sharing and trying to do better today than I did yesterday.

It’s been a year. A good one, for sure.

Thank you so very much for being a reader. I am more grateful for you than you will ever know.

xomo

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