January 06, 2025

Our life unfolds according to its own
intention and design.
We do best to serve its becoming
by attending our intuition and imagination,
our original nature
and our innate virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most).

As we do so, the magic happens.
Doors open and close, almost on schedule,
opportunities appear out of nowhere,
and it seems that invisible hands
are at work behind the scenes,
arranging and directing
to smooth our path and point the way.

And that works in tandem with the other scenario:
Every day is a struggle to pay the bills
and we are challenged again and again to quit,
calling for the recurring requirement
to look again into our heart
and determine if it is really set on this course
for the rest of our life.

And something keeps asking,
"Do you have it in you to take rejection
after rejection and keep showing up
to audition again and again
with no suggestion of any "big break"
anywhere in sight?

How important is the payoff that never comes
if the work we put in is deepening our resolve
and sharpening our ability to perform at a level
that we would be hard pressed to attain otherwise?

What does "success" mean? How is it measured?
Is our heart in what we are doing?
Are we confirmed and affirmed by our satisfaction 
in what we are doing?

Joseph Campbell talks about "following our bliss"
and yet also writes about the challenge of the hero
who returns with the yield of her quest
only to find no one who is interested
either in her bounty or in her tale of adventure,
and she has to live out her life unrecognized
and unknown.

What will appease our heart?
What will draw a "Well done! Well done!" 
from within?
What form will our own satisfaction take,
and upon what will that depend?