Stay Open

Photo credit: Suzanne D. Williams

“The journey may be tough but trust the process. It’s molding you into the person you’re meant to be.” ~ Mandy Hale, “The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass”

Today is the final post in January’s Self-Reflection and Setting Intentions series. In last week’s blog, I shared the monthly tasks I complete to keep me on track with achieving my goals for the year. Today I’m veering off on a complete one-eighty to talk about the importance of staying open. Goals need to be balanced with a flexible mindset so that you can shift gears when life throws you curve balls and unanticipated opportunities.

Readers who know me well are aware that transitions aren’t my strong suit. I’m a hardcore planner (some people call me a control freak) and it can be challenging for me to change directions. The older I get, the more I realize that being able to switch gears is an adaptive trait that we can learn, even when it isn’t in our nature.

Goals are really just ideas about what we hope unfolds in an unknown future. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life happens in the present moment. Eckhart Tolle is emphatic about the importance of living in the present moment. It’s the main subject of his book, The Power of Now, and it is a topic in many of his Essential Teachings podcasts too.

Eckhart describes the balancing act between living in the present versus the past or the future as the difference between being and doing. Our spiritual being exists in the transcendent or vertical dimension and our physical human form exists in the horizontal, time dimension. The magic is where the two collide, at the intersection, or cross, between the two.

How does this theory translate into reality? It’s simple and complicated at the same time. It means working at achieving your purpose while living consciously. If you get too caught up in the story of “my life,” in the narratives of media, or in ego-driven goals, you lose sight of the big picture. If you become so disillusioned with life that you try to escape it through solitary isolation from society, you lose out on the growth and opportunities that relationships provide us. We’re all here to learn something, and growth doesn’t occur without a little discomfort.

My favourite story about staying open to life surprises is the story of how Mister and I met. We were both in transition on Vancouver Island. I had left an abusive relationship and was in the process of divorce. I had sworn off marriage as something I would never do again. He was on leave from his job in Saudi Arabia to support his teenage daughter. His daughter’s therapist was a friend of my oldest daughter, and she rang me up, wondering if I would be open to making his acquaintance.

The number of so-called coincidences that needed to align for us to meet added a magical quality to our love-at-first-sight romance, and we exchanged vows less than two years later. Needless to say, I had to retract my proclamation (hearing my mother’s advice in my head, “Never say never”). In the thirteen years since life has thrown us many a curveball that has interrupted the direction we thought we were headed. It’s gifted us with blessings that seemed to come with little effort on our part.

I’m still waiting for some of the goals I’ve been striving towards for years to come to pass. I’m still a consummate striver and it isn’t easy for me to let go of my big, bold dreams. But I’m learning to have faith that my journey is molding me into the woman I’m meant to become. A gentle voice inside me whispers to trust in God’s divine intelligence and to stay open.

COMING UP…

Books & Projects:

·      All four of my books are available online at Amazon, Chapters-Indigo, and Barnes & Noble. You can also find them at select Chapters-Indigo and El Hombre de la Mancha bookstores.

·      I am pursuing representation from a traditional publisher for my fifth literary fiction, a psychological drama that explores the complexities of mental illness and trauma. Stay in touch by signing up for my blog or following me on social media to find out when it will be published.

Reviews & Interviews:

·      You can read, listen, or watch a large selection of reviews and interviews on my website.

Events:

·      There are no events currently scheduled in my calendar.

YouTube Channel:

·      Watch The Rogue Scorpion trailer.

·      Watch The Holding trailer.

·      Watch The Healing trailer.