The process of discerning your path...

I suspect that many of you are very focused and clear regarding the work that draws forth your gifts and talents in ways that are positive and valuable. Others may be embarking on something new – or perhaps pondering a change of some sort. In my work with business leaders and others through the years, I have sensed that a great many people - whether they are passionate and happy about what they are doing, miserable and dissatisfied, or somewhere in the middle - are wondering at times about what will come next.

The process of discerning your path usually takes some time and it generally precedes any sort of actual decision. We may notice subtle and not so subtle shifts in our desires, our thoughts, our feelings and the quality and nature of our connections and disconnections. We may sense joy and excitement in new places, activities, and relationships - as well as a lessening of these in other areas of our lives. We may notice that which keeps coming up -even as we try pushing it away – in what we are drawn to and what repels us.

We need not run in the direction of what initially attracts us and or run away from what repels us - for the process of discernment will generally take some time to unfold.  It may be that there are alluring possibilities which seem to promise a quick fix remedy for what troubles us -but that in time are revealed to be not what we deeply seek or need. It may be that we are both drawn to and frightened by a possibility that intrigues us -and we need to discern if the fear is something to overcome and blast through or to heed and learn from -or both.

As I continue reading and reflecting upon the inspiring words from an amazing book by John O’Donahue called To Bless the Space Between Us, I wanted to share this poem with you, as I think it speaks quite eloquently and beautifully about the subtle and not so subtle movements that often accompany the process of discernment.

For a New Beginning

by John O’Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.