Knowing the next logical step is one thing; taking it is another. I am not speaking about imagining or dreams that live out in the ethers; I am talking about those who do the work, vision, make plans, and take steps to execute them so they may live and breathe as a thing on this Earth. What if we build it, and no one comes? What if your next step requires resources you do not have? Then what? Is there another way around your issue? Do you do something about it, like think smaller? Or do you detach from your thoughts and actions to honor "what is" by sitting still?
Stillness sets upon me. I see the door to the harvest, the reaping of rewards labored for over many years. Now, once more in view, I find myself still again. Has this creative endeavor been about something other than what I am creating but, instead, about my maturing process through these creative challenges? I watch the seasonal changes with their ebbs and flows, which are a constant reminder that life's expansions and contractions are similar in a continuous cycling process. Spring was short this year; the high heat of summer is passing, crickets, watching it rain, awakening me to fall and knowing the freeze of snow is the door after next. The only way I know to view the unseen next logical step is to tune in with this moment's energy and listen within the stillness.
During this pause, I will not wait. I must focus on other passions that immediately feed me and restore me. So, I write. I am finishing a book. Since I know the creative process well, the next step will either come or go. I always lay my work down during these times of in-between. And I observe the life I have. I see purging around me, clearing out old items, behaviors, and ideas. Baby frogs are everywhere in the wet wood, still not dried from Winter, and in the meadows...children collect them as their play toys by unaware parents. Many around me have lost their jobs, and companies are closing. Death is all around us in the waning of summer, as if the seasonal behaviors are clustered together and confused about where they belong. Unresolved items are also here; this past Spring, I witnessed vile behaviors during an attempted hostile takeover. In a few different situations, I now foresee a possibility of a volcanic-like response ready to explode if legal agreements and bylaws are not honored or enforced. That next step is a time when anything can happen and will.
In these moments of not waiting, if one stops for a while to sit with the self, no books, no paper, no phone, just you - still. After a time, you may come to know straightforward and autonomous next steps that rise within you from nowhere. A polarized universe creates circumstances that can go either way. When a decision is made, the sword of justice is swift. The person whose character was assassinated, cruelly and thoughtlessly, will have their day. That valued thing will be gone with the responsive backlash of truth that kills reputations. Or that dream I envisioned more than a decade ago found its time and place because I built it. What is is all there is. While the next step may have potency, our manifestation power lies in the now as a culmination of all our deeds.
The flowers and twiggs were found in the Meadow behind my home in South Lake Tahoe.