August 2003 Newsletter
Online Issue # 4
In this Issue:
See also, the print-friendly version of
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Look for the next issue in December.
The Front Page
Connections: One Thing to Another
I always seem to carry with me an idea or two that I am pondering,
exploring and testing.
The way it happens is that I read or encounter something that sticks
to me effortlessly and begins to connect itself to a tangle of other
stuff in my life, in a way that I take notice. A favorite quote
of mine from Burghild Nina Holzer’s book “A Walk Between
Heaven and Earth” perfectly captures this process: “Sometimes
it seems as if one thing has nothing to do with another thing, but
it does.” When I first read these words years ago they leaped
off the page at me in a way I could not ignore. So I needed to test
this idea until my own experience demonstrated that everything probably
is connected to everything else, eventually.
This idea of connectedness matters; it makes a BIG difference,
especially during times that leave a person feeling stuck, lost,
hopeless, overwhelmed, forgotten. I know many people who have amazing
stories to tell about difficult times. I have my own to tell and
you probably do too. It seems to be part of our very human condition
- - to doubt that everything is connected and to forget that we
are too.
If this is true, and I believe it is, or if we believe this is
true, whether or not it is, things shift. What was separate, isolated,
invisible now becomes visible, whole, complete. In a sense, help
comes.
And that is, oddly enough, related to another idea I felt compelled
to examine years ago. Somewhere that I don’t remember, I read
a powerful story about choice. Maybe you know the story, and maybe
you even know where it came from. Basically, the story goes: “You
can choose to believe help will come; or you can choose to believe
it won’t. What matters most is your choice. What matters less
is whether help comes. If you live believing help will come, you’ll
live one life. If you live believing it won’t, you’ll
live a different life. Whether or not help comes matters far less
than what you believe.”
Where does that place you? Are you currently waiting for help to
come? Have you given up hope? Are you sensing connections to the
things you care and dream about? Have you asked for the help you
need? Are you feeling worthy of that help? Do you see how you are
part of any solution? Are you experiencing how one thing leads to
another and another, sometime in exquisitely illogical and beautiful
order that makes perfect sense, yet cannot be figured out? I’ll
illustrate.
Mindlessly glancing through a magazine, a picture sparks something
in you. A few weeks later you’re on your way somewhere and
have a bit of time all to yourself. For some unknown reason you
remember the picture in the magazine, and you also remember an experience
from childhood you haven’t thought about for years. You recall
how much you liked to create your own imaginary worlds, or maybe
how you loved the secret names you gave to things. And the next
thing you know, you catch the glimmer of a thread of a solution
to a frustrating problem that had seemed to be keeping you from an important dream.
Only now the dream has shifted, sort of sidestepped. It isn’t
exactly the way you thought it would be. But it might be better,
or at least more attainable. Why didn’t you think of this before?
Well, you didn’t. But you have now. And you’re off again,
feeling new energy, experiencing renewed enthusiasm. It seems that
you have entered a favorable stream of fresh possibilities. You
talk to people, you read, you search the Internet, you daydream,
you scout about - - you end up gathering information about related
and seemingly unrelated ideas and opportunities.
You might not have noticed it yet, but you are no longer stuck.
You still might not know all about who or what or where you are,
but you're beginning to choose and to trust again. You return to
your workplace / studio / garage / basement / kitchen / garden without
the fear of making horrible mistakes. You dare to consider, explore,
experiment and try things. You give yourself more permission to
listen to your own inspired longings and you discover things - -
important things, interesting things. You feel the shift and sense
the connections even before they reveal themselves fully. Something
is happening, something is opening. Help has come.
With gratitude,
Laurie Mattila
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