Welcome back friends and welcome to new readers of the latest installment of HEART BEATS LIVE and a ride on the ‘JO TRAIN’ Journey   🙂

So, last week I mentioned the idea of creating an ideal week for yourself and then looking at what you chose to comprise a week of “ideal” life. We thought, then, about the idea of reflecting back on those choices to see what we could learn about ourselves. What activities made the cut for a great week? Which person/people needed to be included in your week to make your life feel abundant? Are there things in your daily/weekly routine that are missing currently that you would include to improve how you enjoy your week? How does the pattern and flow of how you actually LIVE your life from day to day compare with how you would LIKE to live your life?

I did a little experiment and watched as a “Sherlock Holmes” observer of my own week without planning it to see what I would do with things like “spare time”, anxious feelings, routine tasks, some, but not an overwhelming amount of scheduled appointments. I was quite surprised at my observations of myself and how I do and in some cases DO NOT live a week that best suits who I am and what I need. I am going to take a 50/50 guess and say that many of you have similar observations. Here is what I discovered.

What I do well is enjoy time spent in the company of another. If given a choice between a large gathering and lots of noise, I preferred a quieter venue with one person. I noticed that I much prefer a conversation which leaves me feeling connected and known BY the person I am with as well as satisfaction with knowing I took the time to be PRESENT FOR and listened well TO the person I was with. As a typically high energy, joyous being, I was surprised at how nice and fulfilling quieter and slower time can be. Which leads me to my LEAK IN MY WEEK !

You would think that a person who enjoys a quieter, one-on-one connection with another would be just as comfortable at home with spare time, quiet space, and an atmosphere of totally undisturbed activity time, right? WRONG! I have discovered a LEAK of large proportions within my being. I have a leak that apparently let’s any semblance of patience explode out so that when a need for being patient arises while being quiet and home alone there seems to be none available! NONE! ZERO! NOTTA! Being at home and alone and trying to be patient with my own thoughts or wants or needs turned out to be excruciating. I felt like I was on an isolated island in Siberia! (Ok! SO that is absolutely an exaggeration but I am really good at exaggerated metaphor).  🙂  What I am also apparently good at is being impatient! My week leaks out patience so that by week’s end, sometimes day’s end, depending on the day, there remains no patience in my emotional savings account. If anything was leaking in the house-say the sink or a toilet-I would see to it that the leak was corrected-and quickly. Yet I have little serious motivation to plug my “patience leak” by learning some skills to increase this virtue. Oxymoron-ish, you say? I could not agree with you more! Thus, the concluding thought/question for the day for us to ponder. How does one increase the level of patience they have?

I do not have a simple answer and would LOVE your input. I know I have heard so many times that the only way to learn something new is to practice. Surprise! Practicing takes patience! Does anyone else see a bit of a conundrum in this situation? How do you practice being patient if practicing REQUIRES patience and you don’t have any? With tongue and cheek I hereby declare, I am willing to patiently attempt to learn to be patient. My week will always leak irritation, frustration, restlessness and dissatisfaction if I do not find a way to plug the leak and maintain some patience within my being to have some available to call on daily. It takes patience to live with myself, with others, with the world.

Anyone else besides me out there struggling with being patient? I will attempt to begin to practice being patient while patiently waiting to hear what you all out there have to say about being patient.  🙂

Humbly attempting to plug the leak in my week and hang on to some patience, I remain joyfully interested in your input. Does your week have a leak? I will gladly share what I have in abundance to help plug your leaks. You can share with me your secrets to patient living. We  will all live happier (ever after? )….for sure happier 🙂  !!

Until again—

JO

 

 

 

Hi friends….

Good to be with you on a Friday evening waiting for the temperature to change and waiting for possible snowfall over the weekend. (I know , I just lost the half of you that are sun worshippers didn’t I  :- 0  )….

Regardless of your preference in weather, purpose is still always an interesting pursuit. What do you all think? Is a purpose a calling or an experience or a feeling? Do we like talking about that word? Does it scare us? Does it disturb us? Is it a spiritual dimension of our lives?

In my last entry, I talked about how important it is that we are all HERE. Where is your “here” ?  I think we have many places we can call “here” in our lives every day. HERE can be home or work or a party or a meeting or a lunch date or a peaceful “sit” on a park bench. Does your PURPOSE change based  on location? Perhaps the description of the activity which you are purposed to accomplish absolutely varies based on location. Yet, is there a weave of the sense of purpose on a larger scale that seams its thread in every location on every day in every place for every person? And is THAT perspective on purpose—well—the real purpose of PURPOSE?

I propose for discussion today, the answer to the query above is a YES. I base my conclusion on a fact of logic. You take “you” with you everywhere you go. Your heart and spirit and characteristics and motives are with you all the time. I wonder if this larger sense of purpose which I am proposing comes out of this larger sense of who we are. What are we at the heart and spirit and motive level?  I am talking about the reality that is “US” at the core. And could it be that “us” just being “us” at this core level daily in fact, be our purpose?  Let me state this a little more clearly.

I would generally say that I am a warm hearted, gentle spirited, outgoing and encouraging type of person. Therefore, for me, perhaps my purpose is to bring my warmth, gentleness, joy and encouragement with me wherever I go. Could it be that simple? Could it be that living a purpose filled life for me means living a life where I am awake and tuned in to the important core characteristics that makes me, ME and using them to salt and season all the multiple places I may end up calling “here” in any given 24 hour period? Could it really be that simple?

I think maybe it can. Of course, in order for any of us to salt and season the world with the core of who we are, we need to know that core of our being. How many of us take the time to do that? Do you know YOU?

Maybe that is step one. What am I like? Whom do I like? If I could create an ideal week what would that look like and what does the perfect week I would create say about who I am at my core?

These are not easy questions but they are important ones. You are here and so you are worth knowing these answers about yourself. It’s worth it for me to challenge myself to ask these very questions. Tall order but good investment. Yes? And you are also worth it, from my vantage point anyway, to ask these questions of yourself.

Let’s talk about it.

Until again—snow or not    🙂

I am, yours,

JO         🙂