Whine, whine, whine…
image from fadingmarginsofdani.blogspot.com
I am in a whiny mood and having trouble concentrating on my work. Poor me! Then I remembered something from Jacob Glass.
“In Beverly Hills, right now” (he speaks with a curious emphasis, an urgency that falls on key words), “there are people bitterly complaining because they just got home from Paris, and now they have to pack for Hawaii!”
Last year I complained because I was teaching full-time. This year I am having to root around in the attic of my brain and find new reasons to complain. But, really, Bethany? Just do your work.
Often, when we are delivered from a major conflict or a major distraction and burden in our lives, we are then freer, and that both enables and forces us to begin to confront what were the real issues, the deepest issues, all along. Usually those central conflicts (internal ones) are surrounded by a host of peripheral consequences and problems that occupy our immediate attention, only obscuring and camouflaging the deep one from which everything else springs. At least, that’s what happened in my case. My first major liberation, which made me utterly euphoric for awhile, proved to be just the beginning of the real work. I was soo disappointed! : ) But I couldn’t have started the real work without that liberation happening first! In other word, “freedom” is actually the growing ability to face wisely and courageously what is actually going on, whatever that is. And take strategic action. It’s a growth process, freedom is. It is a certain type of agency that can only slowly come into being.