Emergence

On the weekend I took a hike through the wooded area behind my parents’ home.  I took a few pictures, intending to write a post about how little we all need in order to feel really relaxed and happy.  But that’s not what this post is about.  Because when I looked at my photographs, although they weren’t particularly beautiful, they seemed to very clearly reveal a theme: emergence.  The tiny buds in these pictures are pushing up from underneath the piles of dead, grey leaves, and here they are; following a cold and inhospitable winter, they emerge with new life and potential.

It made me think of my own emergence.  It’s been about 9 months now since a big change in my life occurred, and although I’ve decided not to document the more personal aspects of this journey on the blog, suffice it to say that the change has indeed been challenging in many ways.  But I’ve been blessed with so much goodness, so many discoveries.  I’ve met so many fascinating people, who have deeply inspired me with their intelligence, curiosity, compassion, and zeal for life.  I’ve had the opportunity to explore and observe fascinating new sub-cultures, perpetually opening me up to explore new ways of thinking, of living.  I’ve found a new job that is really more than a job, I’ve found an opportunity to devote my life’s energy to a goal that I can finally say is consistent with and supportive of my values.  What’s more, the past 9 months have given me the opportunity to explore my freedom and independence, to re-acquaint myself with my forgotten strengths, to watch some of my old handicaps melt away.

My main life’s goal has always been to lead a compassionate life, and  I’ve always known that I have wanted to devote my life to helping others. Beyond that though, I think that my biggest goal is simply to live an interesting life.  To live with curiosity, with fascination, and with enough neutrality to observe the curious human position without too much judgement – to observe and engage, to experience, to live with awareness and to experience a range of human emotion and possibility.  And so, without having everything in my life “figured out,” without having everything settled, I can still be incredibly grateful for this fantastically interesting life.

I think my pictures posted here speak for themselves; where the ground is hard and grey, lies the potential for new transitions, new awakenings, new growth. And such is the cycle of this fascinating life.