What every hero needs
Three things this Thursday
It’s a powerful capability we all have - to envision something that doesn’t exist, or hasn’t happened, or maybe even seems impossible. The first and most crucial step from nothing to something, is simply “seeing” it as if it exists. Our minds are amazing that way.
My most frustrating moments are definitely where this power fails me. I feel so much more confined when I can’t think of a story, or picture, or scene that would be worth aiming for, than I ever do when I run up against the inevitable obstacles between here and there. I’m starting to notice what I spend time daydreaming about - what occupies my forward, future self. I’m becoming interested, too, in what topics I haven’t found a way to produce “content” surrounding, in my planning, preparing, and goal-oriented team functions.
Yes, of course there is the strong circle surrounding me, which delineates what I can absolutely control, what I have authority to make changes or executive decisions regarding. But it seems to me that the neighbours around me are less unfriendly than they could be; often they are far more friendly than I expect. Some of them, anyway. And self-control is not all that produces change in the outer world. Definitely there is the softer influence of time spent together with others, of shared experiences, ideals, difficulties, and laughter. We rub up against each other and the usual effects (at least, if part or most of us is balanced) are probably “good.” I’m not totally stuck in my Home, in other words, when it comes to this future possibility thinking.
Even though I can’t control all the variables needed to produce some types of scenarios, sometimes they can happen anyway, through a shared (team!) effort. And while I need to (in this case) be flexible, adaptable, and all sorts of open to changes in my private “vision” of the desired outcome, it’s still true that imagining a miracle can often precede that very miracle - looking ordinary and dusty and yet welcome. So welcome.
Humans transform raw materials into very cool stuff. It’s a completely mundane skill we each carry with us - expected, but no less wonderful, just because it is part of who we are. I don’t think I will ever get tired of wondering if something might work, then doing the research, making a plan, doing the hard, daily effort of building up whatever is needed to get to the final product, and one day, realizing that yes, this happened. I, or we (because my neighbours are so helpful!), made something, from what we had available, and it wasn’t there before, but it is now. Look at that. Really, it’s very…great.
I’m moving from my Heart now (in my focus, in my writing here) to my Mind, who comes up with this stuff, these little “quests,” and also makes the plans, sequences, lists of supplies and whatnot, to offer to my Body for operational direction.
A quest is critical, I think, for our ability to feel alive. As critical as creative self-expression is, we also need a concrete aim. A puzzle to complete. A problem to solve. A monster to battle. We all need a purpose that is larger than us, and slightly (or greatly) outside of our Home.
This doesn’t mean that to feel alive we must succeed. Of course not. All stories are interesting precisely because we can’t really know (until time and space let us know) what is going to happen. The quest is the question that the reader wants the answer to - the reason the long book gets read, the movie gets watched, the relationship is attempted. The quest is interesting. The resolution is great, but not what our Minds are curious about.
My original thesis statement for this year on Substack, is that the Soul’s work is simply a creative quest, in reality.
I’m trying this out in real life. I have made up a quest for myself (well, several - it’s pretty hard to limit myself to only one direction). But the one I’m sharing with you is where I am trying to come up with a tool that will help me with balancing myself - and not just physically. All the ways. I want a quick and easy pocket hack to use when I start to fall down.
I can fall so many directions! I have fallen in so many contexts, and with so many disastrous, embarrassing, or simply painful results. I want to get better at staying balanced. I don’t want this to be something that puts me in a rigid box, either. It has to work in motion, in real time, in reality. I’m not sure if this will actually happen, and I don’t know what it will look like, yet (although I am coming up with ideas). It may not be helpful at all, or it may help thousands of grateful people :). I don’t know. That’s why I’m working away at it. It is a puzzle I am focused on solving. It matters to me. It’s larger than (or outside of) the me I am at the moment.
How I’m doing this; what I have to work with, is very much a balance between my Body’s location, abilities, access to resources, and all sorts of boring physical constraints, and my Heart’s insistence on staying true to my own values and beliefs. In this way, the quest rests on the top of a triangle - it is my Mind’s job to come up with the question, and then I must balance what I want to do, with what I can do, and sort of navigate in the centre of that overlap.
You are watching me work on this in the creative, individual, and somewhat unique ways I have available. My quest is definitely relying on some of my neighbours - which include you, by the way - but also my horse herd, my dogs, and my family and close friends and team. I am drawing on my past, as well as trying to envision something in the future that isn’t yet there. It’s fun. It’s a Just Right Challenge. As long as I don’t tip over into territory that goes against my core identity, or, conversely, start to prioritize the quest over my physical needs and those of the people around me, I’m going to be fine. I’m a human, doing a very human thing.
Three things this Thursday
What is a quest you are currently absorbed in “following?”
Are you aware of the support your Mind is receiving from your Heart - by providing you with the guardrails of who you (truly ) are, and who you want to (truly) become? No shame. No blame. Just a sense of your own worth, remorse (when necessary, so you can course-correct on the go), and creative self-expression.
Are you respecting, honouring, and thanking your Body for its efforts to do the physical work required by any quest? Are you staying within tolerances as you follow the burning question that you want to answer? Can you allow your Body to set the pace, rather than forcing it to move or act or do, simply because your Mind or Heart want it to?
These are definitely questions I wouldn’t have thought to answer, let alone think about, even a year ago. I’m really trying to remember them now, because it seems to me that balancing my Mind’s active questioning curiosity with other parts of me, could prevent some heartbreak. And maybe some costly expenses, too.
Give it a try. See if this gives you any more information that can support you in moving forward, but congruently, safely, and sustainably. Once you have those balancing supports in place, I really think that miracles can become quite achievable…
(but I’m not totally sure…;)