The older I get, the more I marvel at people who've been able to keep the engine going in their lives for as long as they have.
This is a tough moment... oh, everywhere. In it, I find myself more often than not noticing a quiet in my heart where all hopes for better once existed.
But also, the *world* feels small these days: petty, cruel, and immature.
So again...
I really admire those able to stick it out long term.
It takes work to keep believing in the work: some years more than most. 💙
Each time I read this reply it fills me with tears, so there is clearly a truth in it I needed to hear. Thank you.
@MLClark
I'll pile on in my simplistic and possibly missing the point sort of way.
We show up.
We do what can be done, and accept that it won't be complete or perfect.
The world around us is always a messy, brutal place, and beyond our control.
The world within us is what we can control, and a quiet heart can be a solid foundation.
I often tell struggling beginners "If you could do it all perfectly from the start, would you really have accomplished anything?"
Not simplistic at all.
There is so much here to sit with.
Thank you for taking the time to share it.
Simple things are often the most hardwon.
@MLClark it does take work, a lot of it. I too feel the “quiet in the heart”, some days more than others, and a longing and regret for things that happened or didn’t happen. I don’t know what I’m trying to say. 💛
@MLClark one of the positives of being in my sixties is that I can look back and go "well, yeah, I can remember feeling like this back then...."
There *are* some things that I have given up. The possibility of being a bestselling writer. The possibility of winning awards for my writing or--honestly--anything else I do.
I've accepted that my fate is to be obscure, and no amount of agonizing is gonna do that. Luck has passed me by too many times.
@MLClark
It takes effort. It takes a bit of surrender. Easy or hard, soft or vigilant, it requires all the methods. All the acceptance. All the line drawing, of what I can deal with right this moment, and what I need to go to the well of nature to find a way forward. Yet there is always a way forward to be found. Do not be anxious that you do not yet know the way.
Observe nature, she has tricks to teach you, on the how and why, of action, or inaction.