Covey tells of the need to protect both the goose and the outcome, the egg.

“Now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew. But I never took it. You know why? It was too damn hard.   Those words are haunting to me and capture, for me, the challenge of living an authentic life – living by principle in the face of chaos, expectation, and expediency.

These journeys, often fraught with danger, highlight the incredible endurance and instincts that animals rely on to survive.  What unthinkable tenacity, perseverance, and guts.  But how?  What guides them?

Many of my “key projects” haven’t advanced during the past six months, they are just bounding along the bottom, so to speak.  Hmmm.  If they are truly key projects – it’s time to re-adjust my rigging and regularly check for progress.  If they are not truly key projects – rather, something that adds funnel girth, its time to adjust their priority and give them their proper due.

While I am not convicted to join in revolution, I am being convicted to find and act on my true life purpose – with passion and conviction. In these lyrics, I “hear” a nugget on life purpose: When the convictions of my soul are in sync with my actions, a new life starts!

We are surrounded every day by the wonders of life.  Wonders beyond comprehension that we simply take for granted.  I decided that day that I would live my life not simply exist. 

In the spirit of “I am A, not longer I was A”, I will boldly go into the “Arena”, buoyed by the words of Walter D. Wintle

Are you able to see the forest for the trees or, like a spindle on a deck railing that blocks the sun’s warming rays, are your focusing on details or issues that prevent you from seeing the bigger cosmic picture?

“Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work…”  Heraclitus

Masako Tamaki, in a YouTube TED-Ed talk asks the question, Can you be awake and asleep at the same time?

How does my simple mind fathom the complexity and vastness?  How can I not be humble and grateful to be part of the ineffable Cosmic Dance?

Throughout a fitful, tossing-and-turning night, I ruminated on my Schrodinger’s Chili Dilemma – the dilemma: is my new batch of chili safe to eat OR is it a bacteria-rich food poisoning dish best NOT served hot! For me, a quick trip to the grocery store, some tedious chopping, browning, and simmering was worth avoiding a potential food poisoning episode.

The Khumbu Icefall imagery captures my feelings when I try to “escape” a point of deep melancholy – my state of Ennui. I am drawing on the wisdom of Stutz in Netflix’s Stutz, “if you’re lost, depressed or feeling stuck, it’s important to work on your Life Force first – take care of your body, take care of your people, take care of yourself.  Once you do, figuring out how to move forward becomes much, much easier.”

I ask you – who would think that an animated coming-of-age film, Inside Out 2, would help put words to my feelings, my twisted psychological reality?  Surely not me!

There are four types among those who sit before the sages: a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sieve.

A sponge soaks up everything; A funnel, takes in at one end and lets out at the other; A strainer, which lets out the wine and retains the lees; A sieve, which lets out the coarse meal and retains the choice flour.

My question for you – what is YOUR learning style? Are you a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, or a sieve?

Entropy is a measure of the disorder of a system or energy unavailable to do work.

My question for you – what is your current level of entropy? How much of YOUR energy is UNAVAILABLE for useful work?

Like a melancholy man, the Tetons are restless mountains…in a relentless battle…actively facing the forces that lift them up while resisting the forces that wear them down.

Can you be Chin Up psychologically and Chin Down physically?

Like freshwater lakes need replenishment, so does my soul.

Beware the double hinged swinging door

From “fat and lazy” to “adapt or be eaten.”