My New North Star

A few days ago I had an initial session with a new coaching client. As is often the case, I invited her to envision what would be the result of all the changes she wanted in her life--specifically, what words would characterize her experience of life if these things changed? The words that emerged as she talked were ENERGY, FREEDOM, ENJOYMENT, and they became the "way of being" she could anchor into as we talked about new commitments she would make going forward.

It's so clear to me how powerful such words can be when used as a North Star, a focal point and touchstone for navigating our internal conversations and our external actions. So why, I wondered as I muddled through yesterday in indecision and procrastination, do I not know exactly what my own North Star is in this season? I went to sleep last night considering the question and, as far as I can remember in my tossing and turning, spent the next four hours wrestling with it in my dreams. In the middle of the night a collection of words finally came to me with such startling clarity that I woke up, fully alert.

These were the words: "Go on--simple, humble, and unafraid to live the life."

The directive wasn't original to me--it comes verbatim from a little booklet of quotations by a minister of the Gospel. I read (and apparently memorized) the quote decades ago, and obviously it came back to me for some deeply resonating reason. I lay in my bed, pondering each word and feeling more and more energized till finally I had to get up and capture my thoughts.

...GO ON speaks to me of perseverance--the concept that kept nudging at me after recently watching Flash of Genius, a movie about an inventor who spent years building and arguing his own legal case around patent infringement. The passion and tenacity he demonstrated were both an invitation and a challenge to me to persevere in what's important to me.

...SIMPLE reminds me of people in my life--my husband is a shining example--who accomplish so much by "keeping it simple." I manage to delay and confuse myself on a regular basis by overthinking, overplanning, and overexplaining!

...HUMBLE deflates the grandiosity that is often my tilt and brings me back to earth and soil, to humus, which is the root not only of the word itself but of my very being...Gen. 3:19,"for you are dust and to dust you will return." The richest humus, full of the decaying remains of dead organisms, is also the birthplace for new life--what if an ongoing willingness to die to my ridiculous self-significance could produce ongoing shoots of newness in my life?

...UNAFRAID TO LIVE THE LIFE....I love this! It reminds me of a passage from a favorite devotional, 31 Days of Praise: "Thank You that I can move into the future nondefensively, with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead..." How gloriously free that sounds!

So here I am, short on sleep but newly oriented by a North Star that will help me navigate the coming days, weeks, and months. YES!!