A New Life Chapter, A Brand New World

“Create a life that feels good on the inside, not one that just looks good on the outside.” Author Unknown

I love to give people books.  As birthday or Christmas gifts.  Or for no reason at all.  Just because I maybe think of them when reading a book or maybe because I see a cover and their face appears in my line of sight.  Whatever the reason, I usually act on it immediately.  Because books are gold, to me.  I believe in the power of the word.  I believe books are the doorways into other worlds, ones we may not have seen or experienced- yet.  I believe reading is the key to expansion, ascension, to becoming our best selves, who we are born to be.  For me, if I didn’t have books to read, I have no idea where I would be- both inside and out.

I love opening a new book.  The smell.  The feeling of the pages on my fingertips.  The choice of font, the color scheme, the cover design, the photos and wording on the backside of a soft cover or the inside flaps of the hardbound.  It’s like opening a present to me.  I smile as I do so, opening up the first pages.  I do so with a gentleness, an ease and a presence, going slow, taking my time.  I don’t want to rush through this initial moment.  It will never happen again, opening a book for the very first time.

It’s like life.  Like my life.  So many new chapters.  Some so very long they seem to go on and on forever, and like a book, I don’t really want to put it down until the chapter is over.  Because the next time I open the book, I’d like to begin a new chapter.  A fresh perspective.  A sense of completion.  And then a new beginning.

That’s where I sit today.  Hoping to close this chapter that has been my life up until this point.  Sometimes it seems like one very long chapter.  Or maybe it’s been some very quick consecutive chapters back to back.  Maybe it’s how I am perceiving the experience.  I wonder how I could shift my perception to grasp something more, more expansive and more helpful.

Or maybe life is like reading 5 books at a time, which is something I sometimes do.  Maybe one book I breeze through and relate to wholeheartedly, while another I struggle to complete at any given moment.  Just like some areas of my life seem to accelerate and continue to accelerate, yet others seem stagnant and with struggle.  I wonder how I could give attention to these areas of struggle and turn them into a page turner, a book or a chapter I cannot put down, even if I am hungry or thirsty?

Today I would like to give attention to the book I have been struggling to complete.  To give attention and grace to this one area of my life where I seem to have been lacking the momentum I crave.  To see it from a new perspective.  To see it as a new book.  A new beginning.  Not necessarily a new chapter.  But a brand new book, altogether.  I wonder if this will be the key that unlocks the door to what I seem to have been able to see, yet not touch; to know, yet not see the results that my vision has continued to reveal to me for so many years.

Hope in a hand basket.  Whatever this phrase means, I have no real idea.  It’s just something I’ve continued to hear in my heart for a very long time.  I could probably tell you the date if I looked back in my journals, so many entries I have compiled, collected for more than 7 years. 

I’ve been writing all my life, actually.  I was first published in the state newspaper when I was in 4th grade.  I haven’t thought about that in decades.  How I forgot to see this for the sign that it really seems to have been, I don’t know.  But in recent years, I realized this was a clue. 

It’s just that no one around me in my town of 2500 people was  an artist or lived that artist lifestyle- of a writer or painter or sculptor or creator of any type.  The lifestyle of an artist is what I most want to create and live out in my life.  The one thing I have never seen up close and personal, yet the one lifestyle I see in all my dreams and ideas of what it means to me to be human, to be me, to be my fullest self.  The one thing I must do to create the space for my deepest inner desires to come out of me- to reach my highest potential.  Whatever this craving and yearning and desire is, it is inside me.  Not outside of me.  I have never seen with my physical eyes what is sometimes screaming to be released.  Sometimes I scream because I do not know what else to do.  I find myself hoping I will not hurt others as I am desperately trying to become something I did not know existed.

This is the long chapter.  Or maybe one of those really thick books.  The ones we may be intimidated to purchase, wondering how many years it may actually take us to complete.  But we get the dang thing, and we read diligently when no one is looking. We learn something new.

I find it fascinating that some seem to do with ease, things can seem so challenging for me.  Yet some are afraid of global travel.  And this is a space, an activity, an adventure that speaks to me.  Drop me into a country, and I believe I’ll find my way around, meet friends and uncover something new.  A new discovery.  A new piece of my heart, my self, my soul.  Books taught me this- how to be an adventurer on the outside because of the imagination sparked on the inside by reading the words of authors who valiantly share their hearts, stories and deep inner words, strung together on a page, like a musician.  A new rhythm and a new beat begins to fill up my inner world and pieces of me wake up.

After all, the entire point is to wake up the sleeping pieces of ourselves.  Without all of us, we will never fully become.  And if we never fully become, we suffer.  But others and the world will too.  It all begins with the inner journey. 

• What’s your medium? 
• What’s your avenue to go within, to awaken and create and then share outwardly with the world? 
• What is the thing you struggle most with and how can you see this “struggle” in a brand new way, or maybe access the courage to actually see the “struggle” as your greatest gift and key to your inner kingdom? 

After all, that’s where the gold is.  The golden nugget.  Sometimes we need a person to go there with us, someone we can trust.  I’d be so honored to go there with you.  I know what it’s like to journey deep alone.  And it can be so lonely, confusing and scary at times.  But with the right person to walk by our side, we can go there much more quickly, efficiently and effectively.

I’d love to go there together.  To discovery something new.  Begin a new chapter together, or heck, to begin writing a brand new book.  Sometimes, we need to continue to complete the  book or chapter, but sometimes life calls us to throw it all out the window and start fresh.

Whatever it is for you, keep trusting and listening and keep going no matter what .  Do not stop on the path, just keep observing, going within, and sweat it all out.  Move your body, get strong. 

I’m here. 

I respect you so much that I will not do anything for you that you must do for yourself,  but I will stand by you as you run your own race.  Just like a pacer in an ultra, a 100 miler, cannot carry the athlete or run the race for them, but is there for support as the two keep their sights on the finish line.  This is what I am here to offer you.  A pacer.  A guide.  A leader if that’s whats called for.  But ultimately, I have so much love and respect for you.  And I know you have it in you to get where you are called to go.  Otherwise that desire in your heart would not exist.  It would be something else completely.  Right?

I look forward to what is up ahead for you.  I look forward to being a part of your next chapter.  Or your brand new book!  No matter what, we must remember:  the best is yet to come!

I love you.  Micah x TBA

July 4, 2020 8Oct26