A Constant Becoming

AConstantBecoming

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Audio Reads of Some of My Posts aconstantbecoming.substack.com

9h ago

A Step to the Side

When you feel like you are moving backwards, getting further away from a goal, a person, a feeling; can you keep your eyes forward? Can you keep your heart full? Can you know that you are enough to take that next step? Can you believe what you most desire is always within your reach? I’m sure you’ve heard the famous saying, two steps forward, one step back. We all know progress isn’t linear. But I sometimes find myself questioning whether the thing I want is what I need in this moment. Sometimes, I have to find something along the way and what feels like a step away is actually a step to the side that opens up another path. There’s a great line from an old episode of Star Trek. “After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.” Spock clearly. But there’s power in it for me. There’s joy in wanting even when we don’t have, maybe particularly when we don’t. As you read this I wonder: * How much of your attention is on the goal versus the path? * Do you believe in yourself enough to know that you can get there even if you do it a different way? * Can you lean in to the joy of wanting and not make it all about having? I think we all need to realize that our wants change, that some days feel full of momentum and some do not. As you move through this week, can you feel the currents and accept them more than you fight them? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

2 min
2d ago

The Shadow of Fear

Can you face challenges, fears and difficulties with fortitude? Can you accept the emotions that come with struggle rather than denying them? Can you feel the anxiety without letting it own you? Can you know your path is in front of you and amazing things are always coming your way? I sometimes try to bury fears. I want them to go away. Or, I use them to “doom cast,” to construct a completely improbably chain of events that leads to the implosion of my world. It is very hard for me to accept fear without letting it own my thoughts and therefore I’ve often used denial as my approach. But what’s interesting about fear for me is usually what I fear is what hasn’t happened yet. Once it has happened, I’m usually pretty good at feeling it and moving forward. So perhaps fear is about the path that might be more than the path that is. Rarely is the present so awful that we fear it. We fear the could, the might, the perhaps more than what is. As you read this I wonder: * How much of your fear is about tomorrow versus really being about today? * Can you welcome fear as you would welcome any emotion, knowing, like all of them, it is transitory? * Can you believe in that good things will come tomorrow even if your fears are somehow realized? I’m as guilty as anyone of spending too much time looking over the horizon for what might happen. This week, can you keep your sight a bit closer in and experience what is versus waiting for what could be? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

2 min
5d ago

Being All In

Can you find joy in the act of choosing? Can you find hope in your ability to change? Can you find strength in your power to influence? Can you see your impact in small ways and large? Can you be certain the world is better for you being in it? Can you be all in today? This one has always hit me hard. The hardest question for me is “Can you be certain the world is better for you being in it?” Well, my answer often is, depends how I did today. In other words, I think the world is better for me being in it when I take action to make it so, small or large. But if I don’t act, if I don’t change something, then the world is no better for me being in it, or so can go my line “reasoning.” But that is just another way of saying acting is the only way of creating value. And so the ask here is to be all in, not because I am going to do great things but because my being makes small things happen, most of which I may not see. As you read this I wonder: * What are you going to choose today that shows yourself who you are? * Can you see that your presence can be enough to drop pebbles in the pond? * Can you be all in, even if that means just showing up? The influence we have is far beyond what most of us comprehend. Yes, we aren’t going to change the world most days, but the collective weight of our presence and our commitment is what makes the world what it is and what it can be. Can you just be part of it today? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

2 min
Jun 10

Hold Your Past Close

People may tell you to leave the past behind you, but can you instead leave the past with you without letting it control you? Can you realize the past is real but not a prediction? Can you see the past has lessons but you have to bring those lessons to your life? Can your soul sing and your heart have hope because today is a new day and love is coming? I always thought the phrases, “The past is the past” and “The past is in the past” pretty reductive. Sure, they are true as stated but the intent of both is more like leave the past behind because it doesn’t matter. But the past matters a lot. It shapes us and if we don’t control it, it can control us. At my worst, I see the negative elements of my past as prologue for my future. But that’s only true if I don’t learn from it, don’t carry its lessons with me, don’t hold it close to me and let it suffuse. me. Learning to truly integrate the past versus reject it or treat is as a prophecy is a challenge, but it is a challenge that leads to hope. As you read this I wonder: * What are you still carrying with you that you haven’t fully integrated into the you of today? * How do you make the past something that brings you closer to tomorrow rather than pulls you back to yesterday? * Can you see tomorrow through a clear lens rather than letting the past taint it? We need to live in today, with our eyes on tomorrow and our souls full of all that has come before. This fracturing is part of what makes the human journey so fascinating. Today, can you embrace all sides in balance and hold hope for tomorrow? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

2 min
Jun 8

A Step Into...

Can you take a step into possibility today? Can you reach for things that are not yet but will be? Can you be secure they are in your reach even when they are not yet within your grasp? Can you proceed from hope? One of the unique elements of being human or maybe being alive in general is wanting what we don’t have and, sometimes, ignoring what we do have because of it. But the fact that we don’t have something today does not mean we will not have it tomorrow. Or perhaps even something better or more appropriate. I am increasingly trying to proceed from hope in my life. And I’m also trying to make my hope less specific. Instead of saying “I’m hoping for this because it will bring me peace or love,” I’m trying to say, “I’m hoping for things that will bring me more peace and love.” The difference is subtle but it matters. When we put our faith in feeling in one outcome, we are dramatically narrowing our paths to where we want to go. As you read this I wonder: * Can you understand that most things are within your grasp even when you may not see a way? * Can you take one thing that seems impossible and imagine it being? * Can you take a small step forward toward something that matters? One of the things that I’m coming to believe is that life is an accumulation of small choices. And those small choices are all around us. Can you be aware enough to see the small choice today? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

1 min
Jun 5

Riding the Waves

Can you believe that balance is coming? Can you look for the glimmers among the clouds? Can you accept the fall that comes after the rise? Can you ride the wave as it flows and find joy in the movement? Sometimes as I’m thinking through a week’s posting, something that I just wrote feels like it fits and this is one of those times. I used to posit my life as below average and believe there was nothing but upside because of that. Of course, my life was and is far better than I had put into words but the perspective of being down and thinking about how much better things could be lands with many of us. But I think we have to look at the other side as well. Downs come with ups and ups come with downs. We should expect it. We should welcome it. We cannot live our best day every day. The strain of carrying it would be more than we know. And frankly, our best tomorrow is likely not our best today because today happened. And the learning from the lows gives texture to the highs and vice versa. As you read this I wonder: * Are you willing to predict for yourself both the ups and the downs? * Can you find the spots of light and dark and make them matter as much as the background they are painted on? * Can you see the potential for joy in each moment you live? I think I used to view thinking about the negative as a character flaw in a way, not that I stopped doing it. Now I view change as necessary and both positive and negative. As you go into the weekend, can you sit in the balance and watch the world flow by? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

2 min
Jun 3

Written in the Stars

Can you believe the best today? Can you feel that life will bring you what you need, what you want? Can you see that people will greet you with love and compassion? Can you know that you are held and safe? Can you simply accept that your happiness, your hope, and your peace are written in the stars? I remember writing this one clearly. It was one of my many times of spiraling down into a sense of one dimensional being and transactional living. And as I look at it nearly two years after I wrote it, my heart hurts for the me that was. I also think that it’s a bit too deterministic. If I look at the last sentence, I’d want to change it. The potential for my happiness, my hope, and my peace are not only written in the stars, the choices to find them are with me every day. So it’s less that the universe is going to protect me than it’s going to offer me the opportunity to find what I want out of life. As you read this I wonder: * Can you imagine things turning out better? How far can you push it? * Can you hear the quiet signals around you that show you why you matter? * Can you believe that the chance to find more is in front of you and look for it? On the other side of surrender, namely letting go, may be leaning in, not to a story that you need to be true, but to the small signs that you can change your world and the world. I hope you see more of those signs this week and are moved to take action. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

2 min
Jun 1

Hands Off the Wheel

Where is your path taking you? How hard are you holding the wheel? Can you have faith in the universe and belief in those who love you most? What would happen if you took your hands off the wheel and let someone else or maybe nobody at all drive? It's possible and it may create an outcome closer to the one that is meant for you. Letting go is one of those things that is oh so easy to say and oh so hard to do. I’m reminded of taking flying lessons when periodically the instructor will tell you to take your hands off the yoke (the wheel). The intent is to see if the plane is set up to fly straight on its own. I try to think about it that way. We aren’t taking our hands off the wheel to let someone else fly but to learn about our path. We aren’t giving in, we are using all our senses to see where we are and where we have the potential to go. Somehow, when I think about it like that, it’s a little easier to let go, at least for a little while. As you read this, I wonder: * How much faith do you have in the momentum behind you? * Do you believe that those who love you most will help you build your path? * Is understanding where you are headed more important than where you get to? I know I will never be fully comfortable with just letting go. It’s not in my nature. But I am learning that those brief moments of assessing how life goes when you aren’t steering are important learnings for me. What might be waiting for you to learn if you take your hands off the wheel, even for a moment? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aconstantbecoming.substack.com

2 min

Audio Reads of Some of My Posts aconstantbecoming.substack.com

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