Staying inspired

Some days, you feel like you're this close to running on empty. Some days, your heart and mind has so much left to give but your body doesn't feel the same way. Some days, it's all about getting things done and being productive, with little time to absorb and reflect.

On days like these, good friends, good food, and good writing keep me grounded.

Since I haven't been posting in here in awhile, I'd like to share some writing that has kept me inspired, deliberate, and rejuvenated even in the midst of long days that stretch into night. Hope it does the same for you!

Here's to living (and working) with purpose.

Kindness Meditation 
by Julie Henderson (thanks Linds for sharing)

On this day, I will strive to see the peace that is everywhere and access the abundance of beauty and joy that lie in every moment. It is the Eternal Now that I am after. I will strive to set aside everything I have learned and presume to know in order to allow new knowledge and new experiences to flood my being.

I will strive to be a magnet for powerful, positive, and miraculous truths, images, words, and music. I will do everything in my power to clear my mind of the negative energies that have obfuscated my view and distorted my words and actions. I will create a new paradigm that helps me to recognize only the good qualities in every person, place, and thing that composes my environment. I will raise my energy and my light to the highest frequencies of love, generosity, charity, compassion, forgiveness, and truth. I will fill my head with constructive thoughts and images that will help me to further my individual growth so that I can illuminate and inspire the lives of others. I will learn something new on this day and discover a place I have never before encountered.

I will push myself to do or at least attempt something that I never imagined I would be able to do. I will be courteous to people who cross my path and I will help those in need wherever and whenever I find myself in circumstances that allow me to do so.

I will surround myself with beautiful nature and touch the earth to show her my love and gratitude for holding mine and everyone else’s weight. I will extend my love to the entire world and cosmos along with my respect and humbled admiration of the divine sparks of the Creative Force Energy that composes us all.

I will love because I can, give because I can, be gracious because I can, be humble because I have every reason to be, and speak my truth because that is my duty and my joy. I will practice random acts of kindness and go out of my way to establish order within the chaos of our world.

I will write a letter to someone I haven’t spoken with for a while. I will send a message to someone I love dearly. I will write a poem. I will make art. I will play my guitar and sing. I will volunteer myself to help loved ones and friends. I will eat and drink healthy to show my body my deep gratitude for its existence and the role it plays in protecting my soul and spirit.

I will recite my mantras any time I feel overwhelmed by thoughts that cause anxiety. I will listen to someone who rarely has the opportunity to be heard. I will be aware of my breath and the rhythm of my heartbeat.

I will laugh and forgive myself when I forget that I made these promises at the beginning of my day, and at the end of my day I will celebrate and congratulate myself for what I was able to accomplish.

And here's another piece from Tumblr (via a-thousand-words):

You are not an island

I am (reluctantly) getting to the end of Chuck Season 5, and after watching Ep. 8 (Chuck vs. The Baby), I am reminded about what draws me to the series. The series starts out with Sarah being this tough-as-nails, hardcore, self-made, independent woman and as we get to know her better, we discover pieces of her past that's made her who she is today - someone who doesn't depend on anyone and trusts only her instinct.

Except that meeting Chuck would change her life forever. The cold-blooded spy / assassin falls in love with a clueless yet endearingly earnest geek and somehow he manages to get past all her layers of defense and get close enough to her that she cannot imagine life without him. She lets her guard down, allows herself to be vulnerable, and repeatedly risks her life for Chuck. 

Yet even after all they've been through together, when it comes to a past that comes back to haunt her, Sarah is still unable to be completely 100% honest with Chuck. She still feels the need to 'fix' things on her own - which her enemy uses against her. There's a scene in that episode where he tells her that she's never learned - even though she has a team, she still chooses to fight her battles alone and isolate herself from anyone who could back her up.

End of the day, without spoiling the plot, Chuck refuses to let her get away with hiding things from him and pursues her, and together with the team they save her. She realises she does need others to depend on and she actually wants to be able to trust and depend on others, especially Chuck.

It's been a really timely watch as this week I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with just... living. And feeling like I can't tell others because it'll just be dumping a huge load of emotions on them and burdening them with my little problems and worries. And I struggle to let myself lean on others when I'm feeling this way and instead often just try to figure things out alone.

I was reminded by this episode and the most heartfelt poem from the sweetest boyfriend ever that I do have people to lean on. And people in the office have been reaching out to me and generously offering advice, time, and help in finding my way around as I embark on a new project at work - without me even deliberately seeking it out.

Lately I've been repeatedly told, "Don't try to do everything on your own. If you need help ask, ask ask."

And I've been feeling incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing, passionate, big-hearted, generous people. Just half a year ago, I was desperately needing to be reminded that there were good people in the world... things have changed since.

I've been reminded that there are good people willing to lend a helping hand or listening ear when life gets overwhelming. Sometimes we just need to brush aside our discomfort or shyness and just ask.

We're not meant to do life alone. We go so much further, and see things so much clearer, when we learn to depend on others and tap into their strengths and insights while sharing our own.

"We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours." -St. John of Salisbury

Enough

You are my island hideaway,
you keep danger far from the shore,
throw garlands of hosannas around my neck.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

You have bedded me in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.

Each day you pour your unfailing love on me.

You arm me with strength and make my way perfect,
training my hands for battle,
strengthening my arm to draw a bronze bow.

You light my path,
your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.

You are enough.

For my situation, weaknesses, struggles, limitations, fears, history, background, doubts.

You have always been enough.

You will always be enough.

To Be of Use

Some days I just want to cry with exhaustion at the sheer amount of things to do in one day - as much as I love doing every single one of them. Some days I am spent, cranky, and drained, body and mind.

And some days, I read something like this...

and it lifts my spirits,
fires me up,
and realigns my focus.

I am so thankful to be surrounded by such people this poem describes.

To be of use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first 
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, 
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge 
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm 
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud. 
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. 

But the thing worth doing well done 
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

-Marge Piercy