We Decide

 

We can go by car, motorcycle, plane, bus, train, hitchhiking.

Take  I-80, I-70, I 40, route 66. 

OR

 We can change our minds and go sailing instead.

We can  leave friends behind and make new friends.  

We can let go of our old life.

We get to decide whether we will travel with someone or by ourselves - most of the time it happens one step at a time.

But we gotta decide how much effort we want to put into it.  And then do it. 

No matter what, or how you do it... I hope you

Enjoy the journey and the company 

and

Gayle McCain

Dreams Come a Size Too Big....

Dreams are an interesting thing.

 And I've learned a whole lot in the last two years about them. Stuff the rest of you probably learned at your parents' knees. But I didn't. My folks didn't have dreams that they ever talked about. They just put one foot in front of another - getting through each day. 

As you actually work toward your dream - sometimes - it's really hard work - pushing you WAY past your comfort zone. Way out of laziness, way into the place where you start to think "I don't really want this after all..." 

But the reality is... you and your dream are perfectly suited for each other - otherwise you wouldn't have had THAT dream. The only problem... you haven't grown into the person who can actually make it happen. 

Ask any toddler - growing is an achy process. Things stretch, you get clumsy, sleep is disturbed, and sometimes you can't do anything but cry (ok that's me...)

 But when you finally get past the learning and to the doing of your dream... you look back and say "WOW - I did it. What next?" Is this good? Is it bad? 

 I don't know. I like doing things. AND I like just hanging out - living, breathing, enjoying. AND I like the two things to balance. 

Does that affect my dreams? YES. 

 I'm learning to dream about time and space to just BE. And in the process I'm learning how to receive.

 Sometimes easier said than done. But it's part of the process of becoming who I want to BE. I know that I'm going to laugh, cry, dance, hug, learn, struggle, surrender, play, work, live and love throughout the process. Because life is not so much about getting to the degree, finished project, or through some hardship... 

it is about being aware and awake while I'm living - as I go through it. 

Gayle

I Choose a Life that Compels my Strength

 I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. ~Anaïs Nin 

Somewhen a long time ago I saved this quote. I now wish to change it slightly. Now when I read it I substitute the word LIFE for MAN. 

Because in truth, nothing that happens to me is really about anyone else. It's (as a friend used to say)"all about me." And that's the truth of it. I am the one in charge of my life, growth, my future. I could continue to choose to do what I have done in the past - play small. 

What did it get me? 

A boring, if very busy, life. A life that didn't bring the satisfaction of creating extraordinary things (except in the vast quantities of things accomplished). I had been raised with the idea of thinking small, lest I be disappointed when things didn't manifest. And so I was constantly disappointed.

I choose now to move into what I hope will be a demanding life. Requiring me to stretch, grow, learn new skills, and let go of unworkable beliefs about my abilities. This life requires me to be tough - finding the courage within myself to stick with it, even when a part of me is overwhelmed. I choose to keep my inner child close, but to let go of the naivety that has kept me locked into living small. I am not a little girl anymore and it is time I took my place in this life of extraordinary joy. 

BEing in Joy 

 Gayle