Life has so many opportunities that we can embrace. They’re hidden behind our interactions with people, in our daily routines, waiting for us to take notice. To notice opportunities, we have to be aware of their existence, and be ready to embrace them. Embracing opportunities also means embracing change. And change is the thing about opportunities that can redefine us as people.
Being in-between who you were and who you will become lies change. Change that will move you, stretch you, ground you to a pulp at times but leave enough of you there that you will be resilient enough to pick up and keep going. I’ve often thought of life change as having a backpack full of building blocks. One day, you spill them out onto the floor and realize you don’t even recognize the pieces. But then you decide to pick them up, one by one and put them back in the backpack…until they are all in there… but in a different order than when you started. We are a confused, muddled, exquisite puzzle, and we’re left to our own devices to see exactly what it is we’re capable of.
But we don’t truly know until we dive in.
When we do, when we stop planning and thinking and second guessing and just dive in to change, in whatever form it takes, we’re hit with learning from the very first moment. We realize how vulnerable we are, how much we define ourselves through things that don’t matter like jobs and degrees and money and cars. All of that washes away and we can see, maybe for the first time: who are we? What do we want? What do we need?
Change, real meaningful change, simplifies our lives immensely because we learn, unequivocally, who we really are. And who we’re not. We don’t get to know those things without having dived into risk. For some reason, the Universe has it set up that way. She shake her cosmic finger in our face and says, “You really want to know what your life’s all about? Put yourself out on a limb. Everything will become crystal clear.”
My life is changing in oh, so many ways. I’m swept up in the dance of Italian inn keeping, cooking up a storm, baking focaccia dredged in Umbrian olive oil for breakfast, teaching how to make cannelloni stuffed with spinach and pork, washing sheets and welcoming new people every few days into our peaceful world on a Piemontese hill. But I’m writing and learning new glaze formulas for plates and continuing to unravel the mystery of me. New energy is blowing all around; new opportunities are in the air. I can feel it as I breathe to stay open to whatever comes my way. Nothing is standing still.
How is your life changing? What new processes are you embracing that are moving you forward in your unraveling? Leave a comment and let us all hear what you have going on and how it’s impacting your life…even if it’s all still in the planning phase…
A thank you is overdue.
For all of you who subscribed and downloaded the free chapters to my new ebook, YOUR TRUTH, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To those of you who wrote me personal emails, I am touched beyond words. I am trying to get back to each of you this week. Thank you especially to those who took time to write out the typos to me (I MEAN IT, THANK YOU!!!). All of your notes have been – um, noted and will be corrected for the epublication version.
Your kindness and patience is overwhelming and confirmed what I’ve known for a very long time. I have some of the most wonderful people visiting my world here at A Certain Simplicity.
Writing this ebook has had a profound impact on me. I’m much clearer since giving these ideas dimension on a page. We’re in the “fine tuning” phase of the re-write now and I can’t wait to have this ready for you very soon.
And a word about design…
I’m taking a fresh approach here at ACS and am starting to make the blog look more how I feel it should look. I hope you enjoy the changes (change IS good!)….
Wishing you joy,
Diana
