Step onto the ground
Be free
Step onto the ground
Be free
Now
Gratitude
Is strong
In me
Thank you
God
I will
Prevail
I will
Be
The flow
You’re going down
A peculiar path
You’re going in
A different way
Peculiar how?
Different where?
The trodden path
Will show
With time
Without fail
For everyone
To see
Out of despair
I create
Something
New
May all that is unforgiven in you,
Be released.
May your fears yield
Their deepest tranquilities.
May all that is unlived in you,
Blossom into a future,
Graced with love.
(John O’Donohue)
The mind
is quiet
The soul
takes a breath
The dark side
of the soul
Needs to be
exposed
To the light
of reason
beauty
and faith
The responsibilities
Pile up
And tilt
Come crushing
Down on you
Time to dig
Yourself out of
The rubble
Freedom
At last?
At least
A lighter load
So you could
Breathe
Walk
Laugh
And maybe
Only maybe
Dance again
Love again
From wanting to
Be special to
Wanting to
Be
From being
Special
To being
Depression, Purpose & Anxiety – Almost a year ago the perceived lack of a purpose made me notably depressed. I tackled the situation by relentlessly reading and annotating the content I had consumed.
Until I put everything together for a talk about Meaning, Suffering, Time & Imperfection which I gave to the Opal Book Club. The audience was visibly confounded.
Then, a few weeks later, almost out of nowhere, meaning, a purpose found me. And with it came: anxiety.
It felt weird – why, all of a sudden, did I not feel contentment, but anxiety, the little sister of fear? Because I cared about what was put into my lap. Because emotion was involved.
In my business and private life I have had arrived at a stage where I thought it best to quell all emotions. Be cool, be equanimous. I was still functioning – but, as if I were on remote, far, far from my A-game.
My newly-found purpose on the other hand had me emotionally involved. It confronts me with all kinds of constraints – something I had not anticipated and that I felt needed to be resolved.
I started with a book: ‘A Beautiful Constraint‘ by Barden & Morgan – which Seth Godin had listed among the suggested reading on the topic of ‘constraints’ in the altMBA that I had completed a year ago.
And there, in the book, I found it: Anxiety is essential when dealing with constraints and change. From the book: “If you can remain insecure, yet optimistic, you’ve got a pretty good chance of changing the world.” (Dan Wieden)
Alright, then. Anxiety is my new friend and I’ll team her up with Optimism, my old friend, and bring in the support team: intellectual impetus, capability, creative tenacity.