I call it a StarDate…a way to reflect on what’s on my heart and mind. To share with a friend, send them to http://ReflectivePractice.space

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

- Viktor Frankl

StarDate 31 Mar 2024

Year 6, Note 8 “What is my responsibility here?”

Hello from the Delta Club here at ATL… en route to Orlando, FL.

45,545 hours separate this morning when I left and my arrival on January 19, 2019.

Those hours mark the bookends..., the moments, and the memories between arriving at the MGM Airport in Montgomery, Alabama, to begin my renewed life... and flying out of MGM today for the last time living here. (A short TDY this week and then we start our drive West next Saturday.)

There is no way I’d ever be able to put all the stories and growth of my feeling of #connectation in a StarDate. Truly, I’m overcome by the emotion of the recognition, action, process, and outcome of connecting with…

• My own self
• A meaningful calling
• A tribe who accepts AND challenges us
• Current events, conditions, contexts
• A past history founded on empathic principles
• Collaborators and innovators I have met
• A future that feels, seems, and looks better than today

Count ‘em… there are at least 7.

//

On a friend's recommendation, I’m listening to another one of David Brooks’ books. It’s in alignment with the "mentoring" I got from poet Rumi, who wrote about “a field” that is out there beyond this, these, and other fields. Out there, beyond me/you, right/wrong, better/worse, faith/disbelief, is a place. I want to go there, to be there, to thrive there.

While journaling last week, I misspelled a word; I titled a page: emotionall.

As soon as I wrote it, I lifted the pen.

And smiled.

Then, I wrote:

Emotion

Emotional

Emotion All

All

All emotional

All emotions

All the emotions

Then, I opened the dictionary…

EMOTION: “an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness.”

The antonyms that I keyed in on:

Apathy

Indifference

Quiet

Viktor Frankl reminded us that our work is to be questioned BY our life, to ask the stranger in the mirror, “What is my responsibility here?”

Some find it easier to look out a window than into a mirror, not just seeing but accepting, challenging, and asking more of ourselves…in relation to others.

//

Just over a week ago, I spoke with a friend from Junior High School. I’m pretty sure we hadn’t talked in more than 30 years and during our FaceTime conversation, we got to go back…way back. Apparently, I’ve been sorting my socks by right and left since I did laundry at his house, and we both remember the violence and rage of the dwelling in which I was raised.

For a while, we discussed the golden rule... its foundation, interpretation, and application. There was a point during the conversation when I had to remind myself that I think a LOT about things...

(If you know me, you know how I feel about that rule!)

I’m walking toward this month pre-flecting on my own reflection ... and my habit of reflecting. The question is: “How might I lean forward, use my voice, and stand in the light shining on connectivity and development?”

Lean

Use

Stand

The first (or second if your govt!) quarter of the year is behind us, tomorrow is April. (And, almost my birthday!) With long days (and an eclipse!) heading our way, I call on all of us to show up...to stand.

For ourselves. For something meaningful. And then, with the overflow of what’s left, for one another.

Yup. Put your oxygen mask on first.

Wanna practice?

Open a notebook and write until you misspell a word on accident. Let your inner knowing guide you, and then spend some time with and in whatever shows up.

Have a great week out there, and you know I'm a good listener if you have something you're going through and/or want to talk, yell, cuss, or cry about.

Much love,

JW

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