In the midst of the busy, and sometimes unconscious, lives that we carve out for ourselves, it’s easy to forget our Soul’s longing to exchange busyness for purpose. 

In a world where the forces of average are grounded in generations of sameness, it’s not easy to choose heart over herd, and the journey can often feel like a solitary one. 

But with experience, we understand that our greatest triumphs are forged in the fires of our greatest struggles. And in pursuing our reason for being in the world, we are never really alone.

Soul says:

“I’ve been with you for the journey.”

“I was there when you fell.”

“I was there when he told you it was over.”

“I was there when the doctor gave you the bad news.”

“I was there when you told me you couldn’t take it anymore.”

“But I was with you when you came into this world. And I know why you’re here.”

“I know your talents and gifts.”

“And most importantly, I know you can do this!”

“It will take every bit of courage you have!”

“And there will be times when you want to give up, when it seems like you cannot take another step.”

“But you are stronger than you know, so keep stepping!”   

“Because I will never give up on you!”

The good news is that for as long as we have breath, we have the opportunity to find and live our purpose for being in the world.”

So take a breath, and take a chance.”

Last week my friend Susan stopped me in the gym to introduce me to Michelle, a woman who was three months and twenty-five pounds away from realizing her dream of becoming a police officer. (Now I could pontificate on the ridiculousness of a healthy 5’6” woman being told that she had to go from 150 pounds to 125 pounds in three months because some training academy official was in love with his/her arbitrary height-weight charts, but that’s a blog post for another day).

Susan said that she was concerned about the fact that Michelle had hit a plateau in her training and that as a result she’d become really negative about her prospects for being accepted into the academy. And as a former bodybuilder, she asked if I had any suggestions that could help her to lose the weight. 

Michelle teared up as she told me that becoming a police officer was her dream job. And that she was afraid that she would fail to lose the weight, get kicked out of the academy and end up with nothing. And at that point it was clear to Susan and me that weight was definitely not her biggest challenge.

So we spent some time working to get Michelle to a place where she could begin to believe in herself again. And at one point I even drove home to get a book that I knew would inspire her. Then when I ran into Susan at the gym a week later, she happily reported that Michelle was back on track and headed toward her goal of reporting to the academy at the required weight. 

On the way home from the gym that day I thought about how important Susan was to Michelle’s success. And it occurred to me that we’re constantly surrounded by angels like Susan who are ready, at a moment’s notice, to wade into the muck of our fears and worries and pull us out onto the dry land of our hopes and dreams. Sometimes they’re folks we already know. And at other times they’re strangers who wander into our lives for a moment or two and offer a kind word or a positive idea that propels us forward. 

So how can you spot your angels? 

They’re the folks that say, “I believe in you” when you don’t believe in yourself. They’re the people that say, “You can do it” when you don’t believe that you can. And they’re the ones who say, “Let me show you how I did it” when you’ve lost your way and need a way out.

It seems like we spend so much of our precious time wading through life’s minutia, that we tend to forget about what it means to really live. And unfortunately for most of us, clarity only comes when we’re surrounded by our friends and family for one last breath as we depart this world for the next.

It was Blaise Pascal who said that “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.” And yet even with this in mind, we still choose to avoid any opportunity to be alone with our inner voice, the voice that has traveled this journey with us and whose sole purpose is to move us in the direction of creating and living our Best Lives.

It’s a voice that we too often choose to ignore, either because we’re afraid to wander outside of the box…or because we’ve allowed ourselves to succumb to the tribal voices around us that work hard to ensure that we “tow the line.” 

But I want you to know that regardless of where you are in your life at this moment, it’s never too late to dream. It’s never too late to say to yourself, “I’m gonna begin again. And this time I will follow my heart.”

So I’d like to offer a simple suggestion: Take ten minutes a day to dream. Give yourself permission to be alone with your inner voice and allow it to move you along the path you were meant to travel when you first arrived in the world. Discover and embrace your unique talents and gifts and your reason for being. And in the process, begin to exchange your minutia for miracles. 

Like an artist that begins each painting with broad strokes on a canvass, your inner voice is ready to paint the broad strokes of a life that’s possible when you give yourself permission to listen. And just as the artist completes her masterpiece by adding the fine details, your life will become a masterpiece when you add the fine details of Love, Joy, Gratitude and Kindness to the dream of a life that’s infused with passion and purpose.  

So as we move into a new week, I have one question for you:

Are you ready to dream?

I woke up this morning before sunrise and I lit a candle for inspiration. And I was immediately reminded of my belief that we’re all born into the world with an inextinguishable light inside of us that is there to guide us on our journey through life. 

For most of us, our light seems to burn brightest in our early years, when our main purpose in life is to explore and enjoy the world around us. And when we find ourselves surrounded by unconditional love and endless opportunities for adventure.

But then as we begin to assume the expectations of family, friends and the outside world, with their opinions as to how we should best live our lives, our light can begin to flicker. And if we’re not careful, we’ll ignore it until we lose sight of it altogether. 

My friend Sarah is a personal trainer at the gym where I work out. And she’s got a story that’s really inspirational. Like a lot of folks, she lived through a bad marriage and suffered with verbal abuse. And as she explained to me one time, she gained a lot of weight because her self-esteem took a nosedive.

But the lesson in Sarah’s story is that through all of the mental and emotional pain, her light never left her. And that when she needed it the most, it still burned brightly enough for her to see it and to make the changes that were necessary to find her purpose for being in the world.  

The good news for Sarah, and for all of us, is that our light never leaves us. There’ll be times when it flickers and even dims. But if we have the courage to love ourselves, we’ll find that our light is every bit as bright now as it was when we first came into the world. And we can choose to follow it along the path to our purpose.

Always remember that regardless of where you are in your life right now, you can reclaim your light and live your Best Life.



Carpe Diem!

In the race for a meaningful life, we often find ourselves stuck in a chasm between “our time” and “the right time.” And regardless of our efforts, no amount of self-inflicted pressure is gonna magically transform desire into destiny. 

Purpose calls to us from a thousand miles away. And while we may hear it early on, the voice is usually faint. And almost always ignored. But if we commit ourselves to forward movement…and we keep the faith…all will come into focus…at a time and in a place…where all will make sense.

The chasm between “my time” and “the right time” began to close on June 5, 2002, when I discovered the one thing that inspires me above all other things. And in my nine-year journey from “passion discovered” to “purpose revealed” I have come to appreciate and value the difference between “our time” and “the right time.” And my path to a meaningful life has become more clear.

The path to our purpose is lined with the stones of our greatest passion. And each step along the path…every moment spent pursuing our greatest inspiration…brings us one step closer to fulfilling our purpose for being in the world.

So this morning the one thing I’m most curious about is this:

Where are you on the path from passion to purpose? 

So how’s your lemonade crop this year? 

I ask…because our ability to harvest lemonade is essential for creating and living our Best Lives.

In the creation process, there are times when we set the plough in front of us and confidently push forward…allowing our talents and gifts to drive us toward our reason for being on this planet. And then there are times when the plough bogs down…and we find ourselves farming on faith…dodging “life lemons” and looking for the lemonade.

And it’s in the finding of your lemonade that the transformation begins.

challenges find Solutions. fear finds Courage. and frustration finds Hope.

And with Hope…all things are possible!

So go out today and plant some lemonade. And then watch as your Best Life begins to soar.

(from BeautyArtSoul.com)

My artist-mom created this graphic on her iPad the other day and sent it to me. I immediately uploaded it to my mobile phone to use as my wallpaper. Because it reminded me of Nietzsche’s famous quote:

“One must have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star.”

And lately my dancing star has been doing the quickstep! Because in the last year I’ve left the job…sold the house…and started a year-long southwestern migration that is likely to find me living in Santa Fe, New Mexico sometime in the near future. All in the name of pursuing my passion and living my purpose for being in the world.

I’m not sure that it’s possible to move toward purpose without at least a little bit of internal chaos. Because our tribe has done a pretty good job of convincing us that the well-worn path is safer and more secure than the road-less-traveled.

But hopefully when our still, small voice gets tired of being ignored…and grabs a megaphone to scream in our head, “Do what brings you joy,” we’ll have the requisite courage to at least listen to the voice. And then slowly gain the confidence to move along our intended path…the one that results in living a “no regrets” life. 

Because I don’t think that it’s enough to go through life and get to our last few moments and breaths on earth…only to find ourselves wishing we’d seen more, been more and done more. That kind of wishing doesn’t honor our unique talents and gifts and our purpose for being in the world.

So as I write this…I’m curious about your dancing star. Is it doing the tango or the waltz? Are you creating and living your Best Life…or are you marking time?

Either way…the choice, as always, is yours to make. 

I don’t sleep much these days. My calling won’t let me. Inspired to do more with my time on earth, and infused with a keen sense of life’s finite nature…I move forward in the world with a renewed belief in the power that we all have to make a difference in the world.

But there are times when I say to my calling, “Look you’ve got me out here on an island…twisting and turning by myself…moving in directions that I hadn’t envisioned…and in ways that are not very comfortable.

And my calling says to me, “Keep going.”

In anger and frustration I respond to my calling, “But this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. Things are supposed to be easier!” 

And my calling says, “Says who?”

“Says Me” I cry…”This is my life and I should be able to live it any way that I want to!”

“You can” my calling responds. “All you have to do is ignore me.”

Confused…I ask, “So what will happen then?”

But calling says nothing in response.

I cry out in desperation…”Calling…what happens then?”

And still I hear nothing from my calling.

A few moments later, calling returns:

“Don’t worry” calling says. “I’ll never desert you. For as long as you have breath…you have me. But I wanted you to feel what it feels like when you ignore me. That emptiness. That longing for something bigger than yourself. And the desperation that comes from ignoring who you really are…and ignoring why you’re really here.”

“So when will it get easier?” I ask.

And quietly…calling responds “When you let go.” 

Going through my email inbox recently, I came across a newsletter from one of the better known folks in the personal development movement. The title of his newsletter was “The Difference Between Winners and Losers.” 

My reaction to the title was probably the opposite of what the author had hoped for, because I was so disturbed by it that I immediately deleted the newsletter without reading any further. And even though deleting it meant that I might miss an important nugget of truth lodged somewhere in the article, I just couldn’t wrap my heart and my brain around the word “Losers.”

Because in my mind, there are no losers! That’s a word used to write people off, a way to discount the potential that each one of us has for discovering and using our unique talents and gifts to make a positive difference in the world. And it offers no hope of recovery from whatever it is that has prevented us from creating and living our Best Lives to that point.

The truth is that wherever we are in life, even if we believe that things couldn’t get any worse than they are right now, we have the potential to rise above our heartbreaks and setbacks to find our footing and move in the direction of our Best Lives. 

So with that said, I believe that we need to embrace a new term: “Winners-in-Waiting.” These are the folks among us who have not yet discovered and embraced their gifts, talents and purpose for being in the world. But as long as they, and we, have the breath to do so, there is always hope.

Carpe Diem!

In his wonderful book of meditations entitled, “The Book of Awakening,” Mark Nepo quotes poet Kurtis Lamkin:

“Believing is all a child does for a living”

I’ve been thinking about that quote for the past couple of days as I move my life in a new direction. And it occurs to me that as adults, we would do well to get back in touch with the child in us that had no other options but to believe.

Sometimes it feels like belief is our only option: The money’s gone. Or the job is gone. Maybe we just saw our spouse pack a suitcase and leave for good. Or maybe we had to ask him to leave. Maybe we just lost a child. Or maybe the doctor just gave us the bad news.

Whatever we face, belief is an island we can swim to in a storm. 

It’s a promise to ourselves that if we just hold on a little longer, the sun will shine again.

And it’s a refuge that we offer the people we love, the ones that may have forgotten their child-like ability to believe. 

There are moments when we need to take them by the hand and heart and say, “I love you and I believe in you. And you’ll get through this.” 

There will be times when we see only one set of footprints in the sand and know that we’ve been carried. And sometimes, those footprints will be ours.

But that’s what life is about:

Believing in ourselves enough to turn dark clouds into rainbows

And Believing in others until they believe in themselves