Where do I stand today? Robert Frost once said—and I paraphrase—“I came across two paths in the woods and took the road less traveled”? Today, I feel as if I’m taking the well-traveled road. Yet, I’m constantly faced with external messages that tell me—or at least hint at—another way.
Take my horoscope, for instance, which warns of an impending change. There’s a full moon in Aries tomorrow night—and I’m an Aries. The signs are all around me, signaling a shift, and I can feel the changing tides in my daily life. The economy has slowed down and businesses are reorganizing and laying people off in droves. I feel well-positioned for change, but I wonder if I’m doing enough for the things that truly matter to me.
It seems as though every person on social media is a creator, yet here I stand, perhaps someone afraid to begin. I look back and see a man so easily consumed by distraction, someone who’s had countless opportunities to grow and change but has faltered in discipline time and time again. Social media remains an incessant reminder of this—a reminder of how far along I could be. But it’s also a reminder that I can still be better. A TikToker recently shared the best advice they’d been given: “Stick to your plans, even when you don’t feel like it.”
I’ll admit, I’m someone who is often guided more by my feelings that not. I tend to jump from thing to thing depending on whether I’m up or down, excited or not. And I’ve learned that this is okay. Intuition can guide us in ways that plans cannot. For everything else—like in meditation when I stray from the breath—I can simply begin again.
I’m reminded of a quote by Zack Fox that resonates deeply with me:
“Be brave enough to start, to be a beginner, and don’t look down on all other beginners.”
Note: This is an excerpt from my morning pages (a la The Artist's Way). I can't believe it has been exactly a year since my last publication. Let's hope that in the future I can post more regularly. 😅