Friends remind you of your dreams, and then nudge you on as you take steps towards those goals... What better way to celebrate a birthday than with two close friends, as we caught up on husbands, children, friends, important debates, and dreams. Jackie hadn't forgotten a remark I once made about beginning a blog, and together over tea she and Rachael and I plotted how to make this a reality - with plenty of digressions along the way! Last night I set up this page, and now here it is: my first post!
One goal for the year ahead is to visit Natal, where I grew up and went to both school and varsity. The goal date is December, so part of this blog will be an account of how that trip takes shape. Blog and trip will complement each other, as each grows and fulfills its own purpose. I feel the energy and excitement of this new venture already...and I look forward to sharing it with you, as you comment and give input and encouragement.
I am inspired by reading your first blog!
ReplyDeleteYes, friends can be such important guides along the way as we dream and set ourselves goals. Old friends (i.e. of long standing, not necessarily long-in-the-tooth!) can remind us of the journeys we have travelled to get where we are. Close friends who understand us can, if we allow them, point out where we have left the path, become stuck in a rut, or are going round in circles. And if we dare, we can make new friends, set new goals and find a sense of fulfillment and purpose through sharing who we really are.
ReplyDeleteThis, your first blog post, resonated with all of these feelings as I start this new year, and in particular with something else I read today, which I'd like to share:
Nick Williams, a British writer, coach and entrepreneur who I met when he spoke in Cape Town in 2009, writes:
"Before asking the question, ‘what is the work I was born to do?’ each one of us needs to address the question, ‘who am I?’
Less important than what we actually do for a living is our willingness to access who we really are and bring that to our work.
As well possessing a personality, we are spiritual beings - each blessed with talents, gifts and resources.
We are made in and from love.
... our existence is a blessing. There is core in each one of us that is whole and intact, untouched by our life experiences. Our mind and heart are the most amazing things in the Universe, and we are souls who are powerful beyond measure.
I agree with the poet William Wordsworth on the nature of our true selves:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home […]
William Wordsworth,
Ode. Intimations of Immortality".
So hurray for Wordsworth, hurray for inspiring writers, hurray for friends, hurray for goals and hurray for birthday inspiration!