This is my first online journal entry since Oct. 4 of last year. That’s a long silence for me, and it’s been a busy one.
I wrote then, “Less, but quality. Simple, yet meaningful. Accessible, but transcendent. Present, yet emergent.”
Since then, I’ve sold a house that was too big for me and filled with too much. I’ve moved past relationships that were not healthy, and to my delight welcomed new ones that are quite enriching. I’ve rented a nice but smaller apartment. There’s the less.
I did need to buy some things to make said apartment functional. I also fulfilled aesthetic desires and purchased some reasonable artwork. That was a little bit of “more,” I suppose, but it was my “more” and so it feels right. The space and items around me still feel simple enough, and they certainly ring authentic.
I didn’t travel for work during November and December, and took two weeks off during the holidays. I visited family in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, where I was born. And then I returned to work and to airplanes on Jan. 4, and it’s been an intense three weeks ever since.
I’m still catching my breath from the activities of the past few months. Just pausing early on a Sunday to write (to write something, period) is a good step. The novel I’ve worked on for two years is back from an editor with some key suggestions, and I look forward to diving back into that as well. Exercise has been more sporadic than I’d like, and I’ve had several colds as well that have helped to hinder the motivation and energy to get to the gym. I feel most like myself when I’m writing and exercising, and it’s quiet moments like this when I deepen my resolve to not let either slack off anymore.
Where I’m at, then, is resolved toward an integrated set of intentions. I intend:
* To continue to learn and cultivate my inner life
* To continue to strength train and eat healthy daily
* To continue to grow in love and devotion with those who matter most to me
* To continue excellence in my professional work
* To continue to write
* To continue to travel
When you put your intentions out there, you make a sort of contract with the universe. When you steadily act upon your intentions, the universe responds and things tend to happen. Challenges arise as well, but with resolve comes fresh insights and solutions.