“From sitting backstage with some of the most brilliant scientists and wise rabble-rousers and calm healers, I can tell you, without a doubt, that everyone has weird neuroses and surprising insecurities, and everyone has moments of befuddlement just about being human. We look to them for answers, but they too are still searching. This realization has ground into me the truth of what has been said across the ages, but somehow we never really believe: that the answers are within you; that you, yourself, are the answer.” - Elizabeth Lesser, Marrow: A Love Story
Now and then, we all need inspiration, a pep-talk to get us out of ruts and self-inflicted mental blocks. Inspiration is good. Starting is better. Rather than overthinking options and underestimating yourself, do the work, take small actions daily to figure out the path by walking it out. Consistent actions strung together builds confidence, breaks old patterns and creates new connections.
At the beginning of the year, I started writing posts every day on Cast-Light. While not all posts are perfect, spending one hour each morning writing morning pages, meditating and posting consistently has created a daily practice, ritual and rigor. Progress comes one step at a time.
Author Anne Lamott was on Cathy Heller’s Don’t Keep Your Day Job podcast and shared valuable insights from her new book on hope, Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage:
“Be available for any idea, be permeable and be curious about all of life.
Take the action. The insight will follow.
Don’t try to figure it out. Let the thing inside of you help you get it done.
One of the keys to the kingdom of inside reserves of new material and insight and awakening is, “I don't know.”
Create what you'd love to come upon. It tells you that something deep in your soul is trying to get your attention.
Start where you are. Break through perfectionism by doing it badly more often.
The point is not to try harder. The point is to resist less.
There is only now. There is only the Holy moment. So do it today.”
The process is the point, the journey. Wander, wonder, practice and try new things daily to expand your perspective and deepen your resolve to keep becoming your most authentic self. The answers are within you so start asking the questions.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” - Arthur Ashe