So my homework assigned last week was to think about and address the following questions:
What is your greatest achievement? What inspires you?
And I think to myself as soon as they were spoken aloud, "These have got to be trick questions, at least one of them is. Surely the answers will always be very personal and subjective, in some cases too intimate to share? And no two people would ever answer the same, although there might be some common themes that emerge quickly. Common rites of passage that we all might choose to experience. It's all in the details that it becomes "my" greatest achievement and what inspires me. Or so I dialogue with myself.
And I think to myself as soon as they were spoken aloud, "These have got to be trick questions, at least one of them is. Surely the answers will always be very personal and subjective, in some cases too intimate to share? And no two people would ever answer the same, although there might be some common themes that emerge quickly. Common rites of passage that we all might choose to experience. It's all in the details that it becomes "my" greatest achievement and what inspires me. Or so I dialogue with myself.
And so what is my greatest achievement?
How can this be known before I am complete in this life I am still living? Or is the answer so simple it alludes me? Perhaps it is as simple as choosing to begin again each day? And making the choice to be positive, compassionate and joyful to all who cross my path. And to deliver my best effort again. Perhaps it is as significant as finally choosing to become a parent seven years ago (and agreeing to all that comes with it and it's a long term contract indeed)? And being glad for the journey I am on with my daughter who keeps me so alive, young at heart, honest and authentic. I am glad for all stages of parenting experienced thus far and for those yet to come and loving the process.
Or drawing on past achievements, perhaps it is the knowledge I took on a new sport as a 9th grade freshman and began 24th out of 25 runners on my High School cross-country team and finished the season 7th overall, on the varsity team and was voted MVP by my team. As a freshman that felt great. Or how about the time I ran my first half-marathon in under two hours at eight minute miles when my goal had been nine minute miles. Yes, I ran eight minute miles, 6 of 13 miles in significant pain; and I surprised myself when I refused to walk even a mile and somehow found the energy to virtually sprint the final mile. And the experience left me wanting to train for another as the precursor to running a marathon?
I considered the journey I took to finding my birth-mother after 34 years of not knowing who she really was; I was always wondering. That reunion felt great despite the wounds it re-opened for each of us. I felt a missing part of me was restored. And then came the work of creating a healthy relationship with her that continues to deepen year after year. So often the reunions go sour. When they stick and work, it feels great. Attributes we shared all our lives were plain as day. A lot of questions about who I inherently am got answered that day. A lot more got considered.
In the more recent past, I helped build a charter community of 70 people. It took dogged determination, contacting hundreds and hundreds of individuals we sought for the community. It took producing informational events designed to inform and inspire people into action quickly. I was contacting people I didn't know at all. I was inspired by what they made their life's work. Coaching, Educating, Counseling, Healing. I know they saw the vision as I/we presented it to them. And my belief in the idea helped create a bridge for them to cross over and trust that the Founder would deliver on her master plan. As I believed she would. In the process that took place over nine months, I gained the trust and respect of far more than the 70 who signed on to the proposed plan. I also earned the friendship and respect of others who passed on the opportunity for the time and declared how they appreciated being invited, wishing they could join. That alone seem to give them new energy and belief in their chosen path as healer. And I earned a wealth of knowledge about healing modalities that were previously unknown to me.
At this stage of my life my greatest achievement might be my ability to maintain a positive attitude and be committed to contributing to making the world a better place. By small and random and ongoing acts of authentic kindness and compassion. By listening hopefully far more than I speak. By watching for what is going on and not being said aloud. By challenging myself to stay alert and mindful of the need for peaceful people. By being that calm in the room. By looking always for the goodness in people, possibilities of all kinds, family in all forms, friendship that spans time and space, and what's possible for me or anyone to accomplish in a lifetime as a person, woman, mother, partner and in a career of my choice that adds value to my immediate and extended community.
To be a pebble in the pond that creates a ripple that expands outward.
Ultimately, I embrace change and challenge and even chaos. For one path of chaos is that it seeks to reorganize itself into a higher form. So one achievement I enthusiastically claim my own is my welcome of both opportunity and crisis that I might learn, grow and profit from the full spectrum of the process I am part of.
So then what inspires me? Well that is considerably easier to answer extemporaneously.
A lot of little things.
#1 source occurs when I open my eyes each morning with fresh knowledge I have been given another day to do my best again.
In the more recent past, I helped build a charter community of 70 people. It took dogged determination, contacting hundreds and hundreds of individuals we sought for the community. It took producing informational events designed to inform and inspire people into action quickly. I was contacting people I didn't know at all. I was inspired by what they made their life's work. Coaching, Educating, Counseling, Healing. I know they saw the vision as I/we presented it to them. And my belief in the idea helped create a bridge for them to cross over and trust that the Founder would deliver on her master plan. As I believed she would. In the process that took place over nine months, I gained the trust and respect of far more than the 70 who signed on to the proposed plan. I also earned the friendship and respect of others who passed on the opportunity for the time and declared how they appreciated being invited, wishing they could join. That alone seem to give them new energy and belief in their chosen path as healer. And I earned a wealth of knowledge about healing modalities that were previously unknown to me.
At this stage of my life my greatest achievement might be my ability to maintain a positive attitude and be committed to contributing to making the world a better place. By small and random and ongoing acts of authentic kindness and compassion. By listening hopefully far more than I speak. By watching for what is going on and not being said aloud. By challenging myself to stay alert and mindful of the need for peaceful people. By being that calm in the room. By looking always for the goodness in people, possibilities of all kinds, family in all forms, friendship that spans time and space, and what's possible for me or anyone to accomplish in a lifetime as a person, woman, mother, partner and in a career of my choice that adds value to my immediate and extended community.
To be a pebble in the pond that creates a ripple that expands outward.
Ultimately, I embrace change and challenge and even chaos. For one path of chaos is that it seeks to reorganize itself into a higher form. So one achievement I enthusiastically claim my own is my welcome of both opportunity and crisis that I might learn, grow and profit from the full spectrum of the process I am part of.
So then what inspires me? Well that is considerably easier to answer extemporaneously.
A lot of little things.
#1 source occurs when I open my eyes each morning with fresh knowledge I have been given another day to do my best again.
That spring returns after winter every year I live inspires me.
That what my kindergarten teacher Miss Mosgrove taught me STILL completely applies to daily life inspires me.
That I know the stories of hundreds and hundreds of people who choose careers in healing and education that are paid too little, work too much and still have a great energy and commitment inspires me. That they continue to show up for those they serve and teach inspires me.
Just about every teacher I have ever had inspires me to be a teacher of some kind myself, if only to my daughter, her friends, my peers, my friends, and all who have yet to meet me.
That my mother's husband has been teaching for 35 years and still loves it as much as ever inspires me.
That an 89 year old teacher was honored for her 69 years of service and she has three job offers to consider inspires me. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5421344 (be inspired yourself!)
That it is never to late to begin again to reinvent one's self inspires me. And that there are more and more means for doing just this. Resources are more abundant than ever. Wisdom is available on demand to those who seek it.
That necessity is the catalyst for inventions and technologies that seem sometimes to arrive just in time inspires me.
That we can adapt again and again and continue to do so inspires me.
That I know who I am, how I got to this heart/mind space, what I value most, what I will stand for, that I accept my gifts and use them daily serves as a source of inspiration again and again.
I could go on and on about all the things that inspire me and tomorrow there will be something else not on the list. Same could be said for my list of greatest accomplishments. That too is a work in progress that inspires me to stay in the game. Or is it the dance?
That what my kindergarten teacher Miss Mosgrove taught me STILL completely applies to daily life inspires me.
That I know the stories of hundreds and hundreds of people who choose careers in healing and education that are paid too little, work too much and still have a great energy and commitment inspires me. That they continue to show up for those they serve and teach inspires me.
Just about every teacher I have ever had inspires me to be a teacher of some kind myself, if only to my daughter, her friends, my peers, my friends, and all who have yet to meet me.
That my mother's husband has been teaching for 35 years and still loves it as much as ever inspires me.
That an 89 year old teacher was honored for her 69 years of service and she has three job offers to consider inspires me. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5421344 (be inspired yourself!)
That it is never to late to begin again to reinvent one's self inspires me. And that there are more and more means for doing just this. Resources are more abundant than ever. Wisdom is available on demand to those who seek it.
That necessity is the catalyst for inventions and technologies that seem sometimes to arrive just in time inspires me.
That we can adapt again and again and continue to do so inspires me.
That I know who I am, how I got to this heart/mind space, what I value most, what I will stand for, that I accept my gifts and use them daily serves as a source of inspiration again and again.
I could go on and on about all the things that inspire me and tomorrow there will be something else not on the list. Same could be said for my list of greatest accomplishments. That too is a work in progress that inspires me to stay in the game. Or is it the dance?
