red ginger, Canon Digital Rebel
I recently got a sweet note from a talented photographer and mother of 3 who is creating a new business and having some anxiety about where it is going. She asked me, “Are there days that you want to quit and become a greeter at walmart?” which made me laugh. I just reread what I wrote to her today and thought I would share it with you:
I certainly don’t always feel “together” either, I just keep going, keep showing up, and continue to remind myself that I am choosing this, and I could choose something else at any point.
Our choices are not a sentence, but an alive thing…
Keep making choices that feel alive, juicy, and your heart’s desire. Keep making choices that honor your values. They don’t have to look any particular way.
It’s comforting to me to remember that there are a lot of ways to get where we want to go. There are not necessarily bad or wrong choices, but moments where we make new ones. We really are moving forward even when we feel like we are being set back.
Trusting (and even honoring) things that came before affirms that the steps we take now are important and real. We can trust what’s happening now by trusting what came before.
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This one makes me smile. I remember, i was reading (on Danny Gregory’s site) an interview with you, where at some point you mentioned that everything wasn’t always all sorted out. That you still had challenges (specifically financial). It made me feel better. It points out how human we ALL are. And for me, it makes you even more inspirational. You didn’t stumble into this gorgeous existance without challenge… you CHOOSE it every day, despite its difficulties. As enlightened and brave and fabulous as you are, you still have moments that don’t work ‘picture perfectly’. It’s comforting to know that in the dark times, when I too might want to “quit and become a greeter at walmart”, that I am not alone. It helps me to keep “choosing”. Thanks!
Thanks for these thoughts today; they feel particularly pertinent. Every now and then I read your post and think there is probably a big, collective “me, too!” being sent your way through the universe, whether you hear it all or not.
It can be a hard thing to trust and honor our guts/hearts, and to keep showing up, and a gentle reminder makes it easier.
Ditto to what they said!
juicy choices are being made indeed.
choosing the juice, sister.
waving, hands filled with coloured tibetan prayer flags ~ waving to you in gratitude for being a creative lighthouse beacon.
blessings,
leonie
i love the idea of our choices being alive! that is a breath of fresh air!
On a day when the universe sends two slaps my way, I find your words on choices and living not only inspiring, but comforting. You are really someone very special–what luck that cyberspace created the blog, and that we’re all lucky enough to recieve some daily zen from Andrea! 🙂
i love the part of “our choices are not a sentence, but an alive thing.” sometimes for me, they begin as a sentence then as i feel it, try it on, i can form a habit, make an alive choice.
thank you for helping me always tap into my superpowers!!!!
yes, those words are truly powerful.
i remember when i was in college trying to pick a major. i kept getting stuck at the words “what i want to do the rest of my life” until i realized that’s not what i was deciding at all. i was just deciding what i wanted to study *then* and do *next*. making that choice didn’t steal my power to change my mind.
thank you, andrea, for the reminder. xx c.
I remember being hugely relieved when I realized I didn’t have to pick one thing and do that thing forever…that I could “keep making choices that feel alive, juicy,”…that I could do many things and they could all resonate with my soul.
Hi Andrea,
I think it’s important to remember that when we pursue our creative dreams, we’ll have many days when we feel we just aren’t…going anywhere! It feels as if there is no progress, that the sky is always gray and overcast. Those are the days when we feel like becoming a Walmart greeter, because at least it pays the bills. On days like that, we must re-affirm what the “juiciness” in the dream is–what is it that makes us smile? What are we willing to have faith for? Where we are actually “going” on those gray days is to a place of greater faith. After enough time has passed, one day the seed will bud and the sun will shine through the clouds. Then you can eat all the chocolate you want, and you’ll have a good memory to sustain you…
wow.
i needed this.
you have NO idea how much.
Thank you. I too, needed to hear these words today.
I’m nearing the middle (the valley) of work on Julia Cameron’s book The Artist Way, and your words have encouraged me to keep moving on the path I am choosing.
Great-fully, Nicole
I really like this post & needed to hear it today. I was with you for most of it BUT at the same time I felt a tremendous resistance rise up in me when I got to the line about “trusting what came before.” When I look at my past, I see a series of mistakes and focusing on that (I know!) keeps me from moving forward. Trusting what came before? Completely out of the question for me, right now. But at least I can recognize my own resistance.
I so TOTALLY believe in that Andrea…thanks for the reminder :). There is always a choice.
And, there are all those little choices that add up to the big choice. I have to sometimes remind myself that those little choices are necessary to get to the big choice. Thanks for helping with all these choices, Andrea!
Gearing up for surgery has given me new challenges in the trust arena. I appreciate your articulating the challenge and tools with which to meet it. What is that song line: Here’s to the future because we made it throught the past.
Andrea – Thanks so much for your wonderful post. It made me think how many amazing things I have learned by reading your blog and others. There is so much wisdom to be had on this big internet thing. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful idea.
~~ Chris
we are always busy with ourselves.
we are always busy with moving forward.
we believe that is important
and it is.
but maybe it’s even more important being not so busy with ourself
to trust that that’s not neccesary
that we always grow, and always move forward
just like that
it grows
it moves forward
every moment
Thanks for this reaffirming post. There doesn’t necessarily have to be “right” or “wrong” choices — it’s how we make those choices and what we choose to do with them that matters.
Thank you for the reminder.
I really needed it today.
G
You are an excellent writer and I really appreciate the wisdom you impart on your website. Thank you for the affirmation that you unwittingly gave me in your post today. As I struggle between the choices of following my desire for a career in writing or settling for a more secure future in a more “responsible” career I have been struck by the realization that choosing anything less than what I was created for would be a personal failure. Your post today affirmed that I need to continue to make choices that make me feel alive!
Jennifer
Thanks Andrea
Before I read your post I said a little prayer. I asked for support in staying open to this process and for a little inspiration to keep me going as I am in the trenches of starting my own holistic health practice. Then I read your post. Ask and you shall recieve.
truly amazingly beautiful words. i always find so much inspirartion here. you should know your words touch peoples soul in a delicate honest way.
thank you ~
Danie
you rock! I have been a BIG FAN of you and SARK and consciousness for years and your words encouraged me then as they do now to live my creative life. I am now a muralist in Vegas and it can be daunting – I am noticing I am sleeping in much later and later and later…and avoiding the world sometimes. But in the end all I need to do is trust and SHOW UP! Once I dip the brush in the paint, the cosmos takes over and it is perfect. Just show up. Just do it. Just say YES! Thanks, doll. You rock my world. 😉
Each moment is a deep reality, being present to the moment allows us to beleive in the process…honoring, like you have shared, each step is the way to affirming our lives. Thank you for reminding us to stand strong and believe in ourselves!
Off topic for a second – there’s an article in today’s (February 10) USA Today about Hana…just wanted to let you know….
…just *keep going* !!!
love, from Sardinia*
I no longer can restrict myself to your entry Andrea. The words that you elicit as a response in the form of comments from other people makes me cry emotionally. What a blessing all of you are!
AMAZING photograph! You’ve inspired me to get my camera out again…even though i just had it out last night!
Beautiful post too….
lovely photo! and i love when we end up posting about similar things and include the exact same title.
with you girl!
love jen
i took your advice and went for the 8.0mp digital rebel.
annnnd i’m in love with it, thanks!
You are very right about choices. As I think we forget that we have options and we can decided to take a different path, simply by making a choice. Sometimes, it takes a little reminding.
I just wanted to tell someone that my stomach just aches with envy when I saw that Dooce and other bloggers got to go on a trip to the Netherlands and get paid for blogging. I really hope, hope, hope that I am able to support myself financiall, even a little bit, through my blogging and writing. And, even though I have a day job, I still think I should just forget it all and get a job greeting at Walmart. Well, it’s times like this when I have to tell myself to “just keep swimming” just like on Finding Nemo.
just wanted to say
happy valentines day
to one of my favorite bloggers
🙂
YOU ARE AWSOME!!!!!!!!!
Choices…it is all about our own choices–and letting go of fear…
thank you for your site…I really enjoy it…
xxo
True. Maybe it’s like when you want to start exercising or stop eating sugar? You can not make ONE choise. You have to make the choise every time, every day.
Beautiful picture.