More than three years ago, when I was just starting this blog, I wrote a post called “The Big Ideas.” In it, I listed the big concepts I wanted to talk about here. It was my “this, I believe” post.
It feels good to look back on them, to remember what I was holding in mind when I started. All of these ideas are still important to me. And there are new ones I would add to the list.
This is what I wrote then:
1. What you love, what you long to do, is really, really important. When you live in alignment with those things, life becomes joyful, alive, full color, move-you-to-tears gorgeous. But most of us get lost from our true loves along the way in life. There is a way to get back on track.
2. If you are here on this planet, there is a unique contribution you are meant to make. That’s what I call your real work. Sometimes we can do our real work through our jobs, and sometimes we choose to do it outside of our jobs. Which you do doesn’t really matter. But it really matters that in some way, you do your real work.
3. We all have a relentless inner critic and voice of fear within. Wise living involves learning to recognize those voices for what they are, and separate them from the voice of your authentic self. Then you can choose who to listen to.
4. Human beings get hooked by fear. We get unhappy because of stories we make up about how things are or how things need to be. But the big fabulous miracle is this: there is always a way out of stress, fear, pain, resentment or anxiety. That way comes from making subtle internal shifts, (I call these “two inch shifts”) that allow us to move from suffering to peace, from constriction to expansiveness. You can learn to make those shifts.
5. Most suffering comes from leaving who we really are, or leaving love. Simple as that. That means most suffering can be relieved by reconnecting to a spirit of love or reconnecting to ourselves. We all need a set of practices, cues, habits that help us make that reconnection.
6. If we fill up our lives with endless doing and mental “shoulds” and overscheduling, the life that wants to emerge in us never can. We need to carve out white space in our calendars and in our lives. We need to become skilled at the art of subtraction.
7. Compassion is the natural expression of wisdom. The wise part of us has the capacity to know that every act that harms and hurts is born out of desperate pain and limitation in the perpetrator. Seeing that and acting up on it is seeing and acting upon the truth. Compassion is strength and compassionate responses work. They heal. They stop the cycles of waste, of attack and defend, of be injured and then injure that plague our world.
Which one of these calls out to you today? Which one says, “Pay attention to me! Delve deeper in me.” I invite you to live in quiet conversation with that one today.
Thank you for being on this journey with me.
Love,
Tara
photo credit: Hi5 Studio
Hey beautiful Tara
Choosing which one of these speaks to me most is like being offered top shelf and picking a drink. They’re all a great drop. But because a woman’s not a camel I’ll say that #2 and #5 which I consider a flow on from 2 really are at the core of my continual struggle and dissatisfaction with life. I know I have a calling (#2) and I know because I’m so far from that calling I find it hard to love (#5) even the things I have achieved or the good things about myself. It’s been a bitter cycle for me now for about 7 years and I guess I’ve had the 7 year itch with this crappy life and am ready to live big. Been chatting to my inner critic and she said she doubts I’ll go through with it but I just acknowledged that, maybe even validated her a bit because the old me wouldn’t have done it and then said thank you and goodbye and the journey begins. Thank you for your amazing inspiring mind altering heart warming (and sometimes melting) words of wisdom. You’re a beautiful blessing x
Beautiful post! Thank you!
oh thank you so much for this, Tara. This makes me almost cry. Why do I always forget? At this time #2, 4 and 6 speak most to me.
Stunningly beautiful, Tara. One might say even spiritual. 🙂
Well done, my friend. And thank you. SO much to ponder, reflect on, and in may ways, “pray.”
Lovely.
Love, love, love this post. Thanks for sharing it. I’m inspired to write my own list of Big Ideas – definitely have some overlap with several you’ve mentioned here. I’m particularly inspired by #5 and #7.
Thank you for being bold and putting this out there.
Kathryn
Love these Tara. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and insight with us xx
Number #6 is what I needed to read right now. It is easy to get lost in an endless series of tasks, but life should be more than that. Thanks for posting this.
It’s fun, isn’t it, to go back to catch a glimpse of your calling to write on this blog, and to share with us all these timeless and profound messages? As I read this piece I couldn’t help but recognize these themes as values that are very close to my heart, too. Reading your conclusion, #7, “Compassion is the natural expression of wisdom.” I smiled. It was the kind of smile that comes when I sense a true knowing and a deep connection.
Your warmth of spirit passed so effortlessly from the page, to me and through me, I couldn’t help but reply and to say simply, thank you for sharing your gifts.
Wishing you well–
Nanette
Have to say all of them call out to me today. Great article.
The Art of Subtraction – fantastic! My wife and can really relate to that!
great! thank you!
very amazing and interesting ideas,well done….
I totally agree with sentence “Compassion is the natural expression of wisdom” because if you the kindness things will fall into the right place.