photo credit: Stuck in Customs

“We shall not cease from explo­ration
And the end of all our explor­ing
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

~ T.S. Eliot

What are You Exploring?

Two months ago and it just sort of hit me.

Why am I doing this?  

That was the ques­tion I asked myself…I asked, and didn’t have an answer.  Well…not an answer that really felt “right”.

On the sur­face, it sure looked like every­thing was good and fine. {with every­thing in my life}  On the surface…until I looked a bit deeper. 

Have you ever had that feel­ing like you’ve been the “ham­ster on the wheel”, just going in circles…except, for why?  {Why do you do the things you do?}  Or, for me:  why was I doing the things I did?  And when I paused long enough to ask myself that question…I just didn’t have a good answer for the why. 

We all have amaz­ing gifts we bring to this world.  You.  Me.  Everyone. 

Have we become like the ham­ster, though?  Are our lives like the ham­ster wheel, as we blindly spin through our day…and then start it all over again? 

…and on the sur­face it all looks good and wonderful…

That makes me think about the image we project, is it our true image? 

Or do we cre­ate safety zones.  Safety zones such as our job, our fam­ily, our hob­bies, our habits.  Safety zones that give us that sur­face look of good and fine?  Safety zones that buffer our true image?  Is there some­thing deeper beyond these safety zones, though? 

{Are there parts of you that feel vul­ner­a­ble?  Is there a zone that feels unsure?  Do you some­times won­der why…why you’re doing what you do?}

Back to these last cou­ple of months for me…(it seems like I am eas­ily side­tracked…)  A time to explore the “why” behind all that I do, all that I am.

A time to go past that safety zone (the one of career, fam­ily, this site…).

…a time to go deeper, a time to lis­ten, a time to be…

Some­times, per­haps, that has to be a very soli­tary jour­ney.   Not a time to be an open book…a time to open the book.  Not a time to lay it all on the line…a time to really see the line.  Not a time to bare the soul…a time to look into soul, in all its nakedness.

And so it has been.

The Com­mit­ment

I don’t even remem­ber now, what it was that trig­gered the thought…the thought of tak­ing this blog­ging sab­bat­i­cal I’ve been on.  I’ve decided it doesn’t mat­ter, though.  What’s mat­tered is what this time has meant.  What’s mat­tered is the com­mit­ment I made to do this, because it just “felt right”.  You know that “voice within”…your intu­ition, gut feel­ing, inner vibe, sixth sense..  We all have this (now, whether we are lis­ten­ing or not…that’s another story). 

It felt, in a way, like I was aban­don­ing every­thing I had cre­ated here in this space.  {have you ever felt like you’re aban­don­ing some­thing deeply mean­ing­ful to you?}

That voice though, when I really lis­tened, was speak­ing very clearly.  Was speak­ing very clearly to me.

And so, a com­mit­ment to pause.

More than just a com­mit­ment to pause, though — this was a com­mit­ment to me, to be still and listen.

Might it feel vul­ner­a­ble? {yes}

Might it take me out of the safety zones I por­trayed? {yes}

Might I sway off course from my own per­sonal com­mit­ment? {yes}

Might it all be so worth it, all that would come from this com­mit­ment to me?  {a resound­ing yes}

These past many weeks have been all of this. 

• I’ve ques­tioned if I really know my pur­pose here (both here in this space, and for my time here on earth). 
• I’ve ques­tioned how much it mat­ters that I know this. 
• I’ve ques­tioned if I’m liv­ing fully and authen­ti­cally to words which hold deep mean­ing for me:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intel­li­gent peo­ple and the affec­tion of chil­dren … to leave the world a bet­ter place … to know even one life has breathed eas­ier because you have lived.  This is to have suc­ceeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emer­son

• I’ve ques­tioned what it means to be vulnerable. 
• I’ve ques­tioned the why of all that I do. 
• I’ve ques­tioned what holds me back from shin­ing my own light.

And I’ve com­mit­ted to liv­ing.  Living…in the full sense of that word, and all it brings with it.

The Emerg­ing

So today I return to this space…and every­thing is the same, and every­thing is different.

The emerg­ing will con­tinue (as per­haps, on some level, it does for all of us).  For me, this emerg­ing is with deeper clar­ity and purpose.

Today, I choose to con­tinue to emerge…emerge not just on the sur­face, but from all parts of me.   And this space will con­tinue to evolve as this new unfold­ing continues.

How about you?  How do you choose to emerge?

photo credit: K2D2vaca

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less trav­eled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~ Robert Frost

May our jour­ney together here con­tinue to enlighten all of us…

photo credit: B Rosen

“Seek first to under­stand, then to be under­stood” ~ Stephen Covey

“Are you lis­ten­ing to me?”

“Do you under­stand what I’m saying?”

“Are you really lis­ten­ing to me?”

“Lis­ten a hun­dred times; pon­der a thou­sand times; speak once.” ~ Turk­ish Proverb

How well do you under­stand, before you speak?

A Story

This past week­end, my wife and I orga­nized and ran a bas­ket­ball tour­na­ment, with a total of 64 teams vis­it­ing our gyms over the course of two days.  (well…the hon­est answer is that mostly my wife, Lora, orga­nized it…and every­thing came together in really amaz­ing ways!).   And she came up with the great (well…in whose eyes!?!?) way of field­ing every­thing that came up over the week­end.  She would take on any com­pli­ments and kind words.  I would take care of any and all com­plaints.  (wait…who got the bet­ter deal here???)

Really, every­thing ran smoothly over the week­end (see, that kept HER busy — gra­ciously accept­ing compliments!!)

Of course, with the sheer num­ber of peo­ple that crossed through our doors, the week­end was not inci­dent free.  While every­thing that came up was minor, it also just really high­lighted some­thing very important.

“I just want to be heard and valued”.

One par­tic­u­lar inci­dent involv­ing a coach and a ref­eree involved me “get­ting involved” (…that com­plaint depart­ment duty I took on!!).  I made it a point to take time alone with the coach, and with the ref­eree — to really under­stand their points.  And I also took time to bring every­one together to share.  After our group meet­ing, I made a point of again talk­ing to each party indi­vid­u­ally — to one more time, make it clear that their input was val­ued, and their con­cerns being heard. 

I chose to lis­ten impar­tially to each per­son.  I chose to recon­nect with these same per­sons again, and to lis­ten one more time.

And I chose to reply with my own thoughts only after know­ing that every­one had fully shared their views (and when I was asked for my thoughts). 

I share this, because it demon­strates, very clearly, the impor­tance of lis­ten­ing, or per­haps even more than that — of under­stand­ing (both spo­ken word and non-spoken word).

“The real­ity of the other per­son lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he can­not reveal to you. There­fore, if you would under­stand him, lis­ten not to what he says, but rather to what he does not say.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

While I could cer­tainly not fully under­stand either of these men in the few min­utes we had together, I could seek to under­stand through their words, their actions, their non-verbal signs.  In doing that, and in respect­ing them — I cre­ated a place of open dia­logue.  In that mutual respect, every­one left our “meet­ing”, with an under­stand­ing that they were val­ued — and with a pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence even in light of this “issue”.

…by my open and gen­uine lis­ten­ing to them…

Y-O-U

So, think about this?  How are you doing at really lis­ten­ing?  Are you seek­ing to under­stand BEFORE you seek to be understood. 

If we have not taken the time to hon­estly and gen­uinely under­stand, rarely will we come close to “get­ting it right” on what some­one else is think­ing (and to a greater extent — feeling).

Per­haps an even big­ger part of this is how we choose to value the per­sons with whom we come in con­tact with.  By lis­ten­ing, by show­ing we care, by seek­ing to under­stand first — we touch upon the soul of another being.  We touch upon the soul, by valu­ing each person. 

There is no way we can even begin to under­stand the path that has brought some­one to where they are today — just by mak­ing some generalizations. 

There is no way we can know that his mother just passed away, after a long bat­tle with cancer.

There is no way we can know that her child has been sick, and she is worried.

There is no way we can know that he just cel­e­brated his granddaughter’s first birthday.

There is no way we can know that she is just start­ing down the road of an unplanned pregnancy.

There is no way we can know that his car needs major repairs, and he’s been liv­ing pay­check to paycheck.

There is no way we can know that she just was accepted into the col­lege of her choice.

There is no way we can know that he still faces the demons that haunt him from child­hood abuse.

There is no way we can know that she is being re-united with her birth mother after twenty years.

…

Seek first to understand…

And we may or may not reach these deeper lev­els.  That’s all okay.  In valu­ing another, we touch upon the human con­di­tion, that which con­nects all of us.  This is so much more than race, creed, social stand­ing, etc.  This is about our human­ity — about the value of human life.  Not just mere exis­tence, but the depths of our pur­pose, our life direc­tion, our need for love…

This is also part of the jour­ney for each of us — for me, for you.  I am a work in progress — some­times really “get­ting” this, and other times com­pletely miss­ing these moments to “understand”.

As you con­tinue on YOUR jour­ney, may you con­tinue to cre­ate deeper bonds as you seek also to more fully under­stand those who travel this path with you.

Every­one matters.

You mat­ter.

You are valued. 

…and life is a great adventure…

Note:  If you are hav­ing trou­ble view­ing this, please click here.

“I love peo­ple who make me laugh. I hon­estly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a mul­ti­tude of ills. It’s prob­a­bly the most impor­tant thing in a per­son.” ~ Audrey Hep­burn

Laugh and Get Rich!

Feb­ru­ary 8^th:  Do you know what is sig­nif­i­cant about this day?

It is offi­cially also known as “Laugh and Get Rich Day”!

If you are read­ing this on Feb­ru­ary 8^th…LAUGH!!!  Right now…let that laugh in you out!!

And, shoot — even if it’s not Feb­ru­ary 8^th…LAUGH!!! 

Ahhhh…doesn’t that feel AMAZING!!

Laugh and get rich!  Okay, I’m not going to guar­an­tee that by laugh­ing you’ll become richer mon­e­tar­ily.   I DO have a guar­an­tee, though:  Laugh and you WILL become richer.

Richer in your health

Richer in your relationships.

Richer in our well-being

…richer in your soul…

So, let’s all…

CELEBRATE!! (…and have a good time!)

Laugh and get rich!!!!

Guar­an­teed!

Per­haps you need some help to get those laughs com­ing (although I’m all for laugh­ing for no rea­son at all, too!).  Let me share a story with you.

Adven­tures in Travel

I recently spent sev­eral days in Cal­i­for­nia (attend­ing a con­fer­ence and vis­it­ing some very amaz­ing peo­ple).  That’s not what I’m talk­ing about today, though.  I’m talk­ing about my trav­els TO California. 

I was fly­ing form Mil­wau­kee, WI to San Diego, CA…with a lay­over in Las Vegas, NV.  The plane I was on was also the plane going on to San Diego (so I would not have to get off the plane in Las Vegas).  When we landed in Las Vegas, every one of the other pas­sen­gers exited the plane (seems as though all trav­el­ers EXCEPT me were on there way to Vegas, baby!).  There was to be about a 45 minute lay­over before this plane would be leav­ing for San Diego.  I chose to stay on the plane.  So, it was just me and the stew­ardesses (and a guy restock­ing the kitchen area) on the plane. 

NOTE:  The next part may con­tain TOO MUCH INFORMATION (you’ve been warned!)

This stop­ping point also seemed like a good place to visit the air­plane lava­tory (because, well…too much cof­fee and water…).  So, I wan­dered to the back of the plane to use the restroom.

I squeezed into the small room, locked the door, and began to unzip.

At that moment (mid-zip), one of the stew­ardesses got on the inter­com and said, “To the gen­tle­man who just went into the restroom.…HANG ON!!!!!”. (said with conviction!)

…let me just say…

FREAKY!!!!!  (and…it’s a good thing I was in the restroom!!!)

She then con­tin­ued to talk to me, over the inter­com, while I used the restroom (the WHOLE time I was in there!).

Why?  Just for fun!!!  Just because she had never done that before.  Just because…

How cool is that!!!  (well…after you get over the freaky-ness of it all!)   And the thing was, after that restroom “inci­dent”, there was an instant con­nec­tion between myself and both of the stew­ardesses.  That moment cre­ated con­nec­tion (…as weird as that “moment” sounds…).  That moment cre­ated a space for friend­ship, how­ever brief, to begin…

In case you are wondering…and I’m glad to share — the air­line was South­west Air­lines…which, from my expe­ri­ence, their employ­ees have a whole lot of fun at their work!!

So there you have it — your LAUGH for today!

Now…go out and laugh even more!!

Rich­ness (beyond mea­sure and in so many ways) awaits!

---

To those of you with inquir­ing minds, I know of this very spe­cial day (Feb­ru­ary 8^th), from a cal­en­dar I received this year…that has some­thing to cel­e­brate every day of the year!

A cou­ple of good ones com­ing up:

Feb­ru­ary 19^th:  Choco­late Mint Day! (yum!!)
March 18^th:  Awk­ward Moments Day (wow…who knew I could have just saved these moments all up for just one day each year!)

photo credit: Marty.FM

“There is only one suc­cess — to be able to spend your life in your own way.” ~ Christo­pher Mor­ley

What is suc­cess anyway? 

How do YOU define it?

Per­haps we’ll hear of some­one who has “hit it big”, who has all the toys, who lives in the biggest house, who…

Per­haps that is you.  Your neigh­bor.  The guy dri­ving down the street.  The woman com­mut­ing an hour to work every­day.  The kid vol­un­teer­ing at the food pantry.  The retiree who just won the lottery. 

Is there some­thing deeper, though, that makes this life we are liv­ing more mean­ing­ful?  Is there some­thing else there, adding depth to our years?

I believe, very much, that this con­cept of a deeper suc­cess is way more than what we can see on the out­side look­ing in.

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intel­li­gent peo­ple and the affec­tion of chil­dren … to leave the world a bet­ter place … to know even one life has breathed eas­ier because you have lived.  This is to have suc­ceeded.”

Suc­cess and mean­ing in life, some­thing really much deeper than what we see in terms of things, accom­plish­ments, and posi­tion. Suc­cess, true suc­cess, is some­thing that comes from within. 

Comes from HOW we are liv­ing are lives.  Comes from WHY we do what we do.  When we con­nect more deeply with these how’s and why’s, we reach suc­cess at a much more mean­ing­ful level.

 

Suc­cess and Deeper Mean­ing in this Life:

With that, I give you eleven indi­vid­u­als who I believe exem­plify what suc­cess is truly all about.  Read below as they share their pearls of wis­dom on suc­cess and mean­ing on this life journey.

Holly Latty-Mann:
As I evolve on this jour­ney, so does my def­i­n­i­tion of suc­cess.  Suc­cess is no longer cre­at­ing a life void of mis­for­tune or pain, as those are the very ele­ments that cre­ate the fiber from which deep, mean­ing­ful suc­cess is spawned.  Suc­cess is there­fore man­ag­ing with grace and dig­nity what­ever mis­for­tune befalls me. And the other half of what gives deep mean­ing to my sense of suc­cess is that feel­ing of peace­ful joy as I cel­e­brate daily the hun­dreds of things that do go right in my world.  With grat­i­tude and grace, every­thing else falls into place.

 

Scott Strat­ten:
Suc­cess to me is being able to sup­port my fam­ily and myself. And when I say sup­port, that doesn’t mean just finan­cially, but emo­tion­ally as well.  One can usu­ally cloud the other.

 

Patience Sal­gado:
I so often want to define or attach suc­cess to big indi­vid­ual accom­plish­ments, but I’m learn­ing more and more every­day that true suc­cess lies in a mil­lion small acts that together reveal a whole life, a whole pas­sion, a whole heart. For me, this makes the every­day so much more mean­ing­ful, know­ing that each small act of kind­ness, love, truth, or courage really do matter. In these acts of con­nect­ing and mov­ing with this intent through the world, we push beyond our­selves and into cre­at­ing some­thing so much big­ger, suc­cess for us all.  

 

Daniel Pink:
Suc­cess, to me at least, is leav­ing the world (and your own lit­tle patch of that world) a lit­tle bet­ter than you found it. If peo­ple are some­how bet­ter off — mate­ri­ally, intel­lec­tu­ally, spir­i­tu­ally — because of your pres­ence, that’s pretty good.

 

Rachel Den­ning:
Suc­cess is not a big home, a large income, and all the ‘stuff’ that’s involved in the pea­cock pageant. Suc­cess comes from qui­etly and con­fi­dently liv­ing on pur­pose, mov­ing toward your dreams, and liv­ing sim­ply within your means. It’s the feel­ing you get when you’re liv­ing right.

 

Kerry Tay­lor:
Suc­cess is an organic apple in one hand, and a tool sharp enough to share the fruit with oth­ers with­out fear of bleeding.

 

Chris Guille­beau:
Suc­cess is con­tin­u­ous improve­ment of cir­cum­stances and mean­ing­ful adventure.

 

Maren Kate:
Suc­cess is almost an ethe­real “I’ve arrived” feel­ing — not 100% how to describe it but I know I’ll know it when it comes.  The deep­est mean­ing I get from fol­low­ing the entrepreneur’s path is the feel­ing of going against the grain and build­ing some­thing I can be proud of.

 

Seth Godin:
I think you’re suc­cess­ful once you cre­ate work that mat­ters, some­thing that was fright­en­ing to cre­ate and pow­er­ful to behold.

 

Chris Bro­gan:
Suc­cess means improv­ing every ele­ment of my life (fam­ily, work, fit­ness, wealth) a lit­tle bit every day and being able to smile more each time I see the results of my efforts.

 

Liz Strauss:
On this jour­ney, I get deep mean­ing from con­nect­ing with peo­ple where they live — in their heads, in their hearts, and in the way they view the world. Every per­son brings me some­thing I didn’t know and would have learned with­out that par­tic­u­lar con­nec­tion. If I lis­ten with who I am I often find they reveal truth and trust that shines bril­liantly and that inspires me to live bet­ter, be bet­ter, and bring my best game to the world.

While every­one who shared here has words that are slightly dif­fer­ent, there is one over-riding theme.  Suc­cess and mean­ing in this life are very per­sonal and so much more than any phys­i­cal things we might obtain.  Suc­cess is truly in liv­ing this thing called life.

To each of you:  thank you for the gifts you bring to this world, for the con­nec­tion you cre­ate from a place of authen­tic­ity, and for your being here to add mean­ing and depth with your thoughts.

Suc­cess:

For me, I find deep per­sonal mean­ing in this life from liv­ing in a place that con­nects my heart and soul out­ward.  When I do this, when I’m aligned with my own inter­nal com­pass — I suc­ceed.  When I come from this place, when I form con­nec­tions at a deeper level — I suc­ceed.  When I love…I succeed…

And you do, too.  You do, when you lis­ten to that voice within and move more fully toward your own true peak.

What is suc­cess, anyway?

How do YOU define it?

---

Com­ing next week!  Many updates to the Jun­gle of Life web­site, and the release of the e-book with the same name as this site:  Jun­gle of Life | a jour­ney toward your true peak.

Enter your name and email address in the side­bar to receive the e-book as soon as it is released. 

Jun­gle 2.0…the jour­ney continues…

photo credit: Mitra Mir­shahidi–

“If the essence of my being has caused a smile to have appeared upon your face or a touch of joy within your heart, then in liv­ing, I have made my mark.” ~ Thomas L. Odem

The per­ma­nent ele­ment of your being.  That which is within you.

More than your name.  More than some­thing you stud­ied (are study­ing) in school.  More than some some job title you hold.

Who are you?

Deep within YOU, what is it that makes you so unique, so amaz­ing, so incred­i­ble, so YOU?

What is your essence?

Discover…and LIVE!

What is it that makes you come alive, lose track of time, imag­ine the pos­si­bil­i­ties, jump up and down, get lost in thought, smile for no rea­son at all?

Find that piece of YOU – that piece which sings YOUR song!

You are remarkable!

You are amazing!

You are incredible!

You are fan­tas­ti­cally and per­fectly made!

You rock!

You shine!

You make me jump up and down…with all that IS possible!!

Y O U  !!

~ Com­ments Closed ~

photo credit: Steve Oliver Imagery

“If a man does not keep pace with his com­pan­ions, per­haps it is because he hears a dif­fer­ent drum­mer. Let him step to the music which he hears, how­ever mea­sured or far away.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Dis­cover your passion.”

“Live your dream.”

“Be authen­ti­cally you.”

“Fol­low your heart.“

Have you ever heard one of these phrases?

Have you ever heard these, and then thought “why is this so dif­fi­cult for me?”, “why can’t I feel the pas­sion”, “what’s wrong with me, I don’t know what my heart is telling me”, or some­thing like that?

…maybe you have reached that spot where you’ve found bliss in your everyday.

Maybe, though, you have not.

Have you dis­cov­ered your passion(s)?  Do you fol­low your heart (and what does that really mean, anyway)?

On this jour­ney of your life, the one each of you is uniquely liv­ing — this is a very per­sonal jour­ney that each of you take. 

What is that next step on this jour­ney?  Travel with me, for a moment.  Travel with me to a place that is close to home, to a place that has always been there, to a place where the path­ways are many.

…the jour­ney within.…

“The only jour­ney is the jour­ney within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Does that jour­ney scare you away?  Make you hes­i­tate?  Think it’s some­thing you will do on another day?  Sound a lit­tle bit too fluffy?

I assure you, this is such a deeply good place to travel toward. 

And per­haps that’s a point worth reflect­ing upon. 

This world is filled with so many amaz­ing sights…so many places that evoke every sort of emo­tion pos­si­ble.  From the beau­ti­ful nat­ural for­ma­tions that cover this planet we live on, to the myr­iad of man-made objects that speak to the cre­ativ­ity and genius of their cre­ators — we are blessed with a mul­ti­tude of places to explore in this world.  And explore those, many of us do. 

How amaz­ing is this?  Just think, for a minute, of some of the truly awe-inspiring places that your ven­tures have led you toward.

“Men go abroad to won­der at the heights of moun­tains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast com­pass of the ocean, at the cir­cu­lar motions of the stars, and they pass by them­selves with­out won­der­ing.” – St. Augus­tine

You jour­ney toward these amaz­ing phys­i­cal places in this world.  Are you also tak­ing that jour­ney into your own inter­nal world? 

“One’s own self is well hid­den from one’s own self; of all mines of trea­sure, one’s own is the last to be dug up.” – Friedrich Wil­helm Niet­zsche

Per­haps.  Per­haps this journey…the jour­ney into self…is the one you are putting off, the one that is the most dif­fi­cult to start.

What is the next step?

Back to that ques­tion.  How do you really know what your next step is in this life you are living…today?  How do you take this jour­ney within?  How do you even know if the steps you are tak­ing are steps in a right direction?

Lots of questions.

“Not until we are lost do we begin to under­stand our­selves.” – Henry David Thoreau

It’s okay.

It’s okay that you have ques­tions.  It’s okay that this jour­ney has some ambi­gu­ity to it.  It’s okay if this jour­ney within makes you feel a lit­tle lost. (or maybe even a lot lost)

See, it’s not that you get lost, or not.  It’s not that you are con­fused on this jour­ney, or not. 

It’s that you are on this jour­ney.  A jour­ney into you.  A jour­ney into a deeper under­stand­ing of who you are.   Maybe there will be answers which come quickly.  Maybe there will be a lot of dead end paths (although they are not really dead ends at all, as this is all so good for you know­ing ‘you’).  Maybe you will feel frus­trated and lost.  Maybe you’ll hap­pen upon some beau­ti­ful insight into you. 

What­ever comes on this jour­ney inward — it’s the being on this jour­ney that is so good for your soul. 

I can’t answer for you where this jour­ney will lead you.  I can’t answer for you, what you will feel as you take these steps into you.  I can’t answer for you, just how good this will be.

See, it all depends on you.  How deep are you will­ing to go?  How well do you want to know you?  How brave are you to ven­ture off the inner paths you have been fol­low­ing, and see what lies in the dark cor­ners?  How will­ing are you to step into the light? 

Be okay with who you are.  BE with that.  BE with you.  Embrace what is already there, per­haps tucked away in the recesses of your heart. 

What is that next step?

Only you know. 

How will­ing are you to take a step into you, into the amaz­ing pos­si­bil­ity of you?  Even if…even if that seems like an unknown path?

May you find peace in your journey…

---

A spe­cial thank you to Patri­cia, from Patricia’s Wis­dom — for pos­ing this ques­tion in the com­ments recently, which sparked the cre­ation of this article.

“You have to leave the city of your com­fort and go into the wilder­ness of your intu­ition.  What you’ll dis­cover will be won­der­ful.  What you’ll dis­cover is your­self.”  ~Alan Alda

A warm Sep­tem­ber evening, and I arrive there for a busi­ness trip. 

Let’s take a step back, though.  Back a cou­ple of weeks, and a deci­sion.  Where to stay, on this upcom­ing trip.  It would be just me trav­el­ing, and the clear choice was the chain hotel with all the ameni­ties, just off the free­way.  A choice that had been handed to me, in prepa­ra­tion for this trip.

What about…

What about stay­ing at some­place less main­stream.  What about this place off the main road, at the foothills of these beau­ti­ful mountains.

The infor­ma­tion was sketchy.  No web­site, per se (except the generic bed and break­fast list­ing — and a cou­ple of pictures). 

Or the hotel chain.

You know those moments, those moments when you “just know”.  It’s like your heart is reach­ing out, giv­ing you the answer. 

Do you listen?

Do you lis­ten to that voice within?

Or do you try to block it out, going with the “safe” answer, the “accepted” choice?

Back to that warm Sep­tem­ber evening…

It might not seem like much, it’s just a place to stay for a few nights while I’m out of town.

And yet, it is so, so much.

This bed and break­fast, invit­ing me in as I arrived (with care­ful steps on a dark, dark evening). 

Mid­week, off-season…the care­tak­ers of this old and ele­gant home liv­ing next door…there is refuge in this home, com­pletely alone.

After days filled with work, and some off time explor­ing the sur­round­ing area…I would find myself drawn to the liv­ing area of this place that became home for a few days.  And in that, moments to read, to reflect, to be still, to “be”.…

Just me, and this house.

Two roads diverged in a yel­low wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one trav­eler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And hav­ing per­haps the bet­ter claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the pass­ing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morn­ing equally lay
In leaves no step had trod­den black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet know­ing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Some­where ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less trav­eled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~ Robert Frost

What are you lis­ten­ing to?  Are you lis­ten­ing to that voice inside, the one that speaks your heart desires?

That voice…perhaps it feels like these diverg­ing roads.  That voice of your heart…the one less trav­eled by. 

What are you choosing?

It makes all the difference…