Turn Your Troubles into Blessings
Today I am grateful for having two choices for joyously prosperous occupations this Fall. I am blessed.
I found out that I’ve been offered a short seasonal position at Yellowstone Park immediately after my three-week walk in the Continental Divide Trail in Wyoming. I had already agreed to house-sit in Montebello, Virginia near a favorite section of the Appalachian Trail where I can offer forgiveness walks and coaching. Both appear as fulfilling miracles that seemed to drop into my lap.
Yesterday I found the eastern terminus of The Palmetto Trail in South Carolina. I was reminded of my first steps on the Appalachian Trail a dozen years ago.
There was that same rush of enthusiasm, a palpable pull to walk forth!
Do you think of walking the Appalachian Trail? Locate the nearest trailhead along its 2,181 mile length and set your feet on it.
Feel it. Do you hear your call?
Now, write that down. Describe that feeling and relive it often as you prepare for your walk.
In this genesis is fortitude for your journey.
This week, two fabulous, successful people in my life said, “I want to walk the Appalachian Trail.”
Into my head flash the radiant feelings of thanksgiving and amazing accomplishment that I felt when I stood on Springer Mountain to complete my own 2,000 mile walk six years ago. Along with it wash in the memories of the challenges and doubts that clouded that vision as it unfolded. All of it – the joys, the challenges, the ups, and downs, the sunny days and the rainy or snowy days were all part of my Appalachian Trail walk. I assume they would be part of anyone’s walk. So, where does one start after proclaiming, “I want to walk the Appalachian Trail?”
On the last day before resupply on a backpacking trip, I get creative with the odds and ends of food left in my bag.
How about the last of the almond butter mixed with maple syrup, nuts, and the last six crackers crushed up?
Yum! Works for me!
So many changes are happening during this transition to Nomadic Lifestyle! I’m grateful for having the words from Satori pop into my head:
“This is a healing dance.”
“I refuse to invest any more energy in my own story.”
“I love myself being in my feelings about this”
Etc.
Seems like my life is a Satori Game!
How about you?
This is my favorite view in my Ridgerunning Section on the Appalachian Trail. I’ve been by this spot over a dozen times now in my four seasons of working here.
Today, I’m recalling the first time I snapped a photo of the vista. My dream of walking in service to others was new then! How I have stepped since then!
My confidence in my message is stronger.
I have clear products to produce.
I have successful clients!
I have a Satori Host Training series.
I am single.
I have invested cash instead of a house.
Canada lilies are blooming on the Appalachian Trail in central Virginia. Now is their time!
And so for me, my divine vocation, my service.
Hmm. I’m considering that one difference between me and the lily is that I must answer my divine call through focused action. The lily is divine will in action. I, as human, get to co-create.
May my actions be as perfect and purposeful as a lily’s.
I love to walk in the mountains of Virginia on the Appalachian Trail. It matters not up or down. When walking in these mountains, I feel whole. I feel blessed. I feel abundant. I feel purposeful
When walking in these mountains, I feel physically, mentally, and emotionally true to myself. I’m not thinking of other things I would rather be doing.
This is my definition of authentic self expression. This would be my life purpose, my calling.
I have come to believe, acknowledge, and now act upon walking as my God-given vocation, acting as if this is not just my preference but my natural occupation whose fulfillment is designed by God. My job is to surrender to my vocations’s expression, trusting that how I am to manifest this expression in a prosperous way will be communicated by God as I continue my walking.
I’m in the self-checkout area in Wal-mart. A little girl is screaming. Her mom is livid while feverishly punching buttons, pulling out cash.
Twenty bystanders are holding their breath.
At that moment I shift that world of breathless bystanding, thinking, “I matter. I believe in fulfillment of love in each moment.”
You see, the night before I had let go of the belief, “I don’t matter”, in a Satori game. In addition, all week I had been distilling my “why” to a fundamental belief in “fulfillment”. Could I act on that right now, in this moment, with these people? In this place?
My brother chose to leave this physical life a few months ago or so it appears. I honor him and accept his choice. Although I don’t know his reasons or what he was trying to leave, it inspires me to discern my own journey through frustration in a miserable marriage.
There I was, feeling trapped in a relationship fraught with criticism, dispassion, emotional abuse, betrayal, loneliness, and boredom. I blamed myself for choosing it. Had I not created it all myself out of my own self-hatred, as I was learning in my Radical Forgiveness training?