journey – New beginnings: A blog about spirituality, chaplaincy and renewal

Needing Another Pair of Eyes to See our Lives

Are we really asking and searching for the right things in our lives? Are we able to see in the right direction or do we always feel turned around? Is life feeling so challenging that we lose perspective on our bigger picture dreams and hopes?

Too often, the difficulties and challenges in life can feel so overwhelming that we get lost in the narrow, nitty-gritty details of what is going on and lose sight of the bigger picture. This is understandable, as we hunker down and enter a survival mode state of mind. In these moments, our hopes shrink down to surviving the immediate, short term, often at the expense of longer term considerations. This is normal. This is as one would expect.

In the Passover Haggadah, as part of the Maggid section, we analyze a series of verses from Deuteronomy 26 (5-8) as a way of rereading the Exodus story. One line from that section states:

וַנִּצְעַק אֶל־ה’ אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵינוּ – כְּמָה שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיְהִי בַיָּמִים הָרַבִּים הָהֵם וַיָּמָת מֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם, וַיֵּאָנְחוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִ־הָעֲבוֹדָה וַיִּזְעָקוּ, וַתַּעַל שַׁוְעָתָם אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים מִן הָעֲבֹדָה.

“And we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors” – as it says: (Exodus 2:23); “It happened in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died; and the Children of Israel groaned from the servitude and cried; their cry because of their servitude rose up to God.”

In their pain and suffering, they cried out to God. According to Artscroll’s Rav Shach Haggadah (for more on who Rav Shach is see here), this passage contains a strange grammatical choice, which Rav Shach expounds upon:

We would have expected the Torah to state, “The Children of Israel groaned because of the servitude. Why does it write instead that they groaned, “from the servitude?” Rav Shach explained this expression as follows.

Man is often swept up in his routine, and finds himself incapable of rising above it to view life from a different perspective. When the Jews groaned and cried out to God, they did so “from” (out of) their servitude. They were certain that their lives would continue forever in the same miserable state as it was then. They prayed for an amelioration of their condition, but such ideas as total liberation or redemption were totally beyond their mental grasp. That this is so may be seen from the people’s reaction when Moshe first appeared before them and declared his intent to take them out of Egypt: “They did not listen to Moshe, from shortness of spirit” (Shemos 6:9) – i.e., from an inability to break out of their narrow mental mode of servitude and relate to the concepts that Moshe was describing to them.

It is because of this limitation of the human mind that it is so important to seek advice often from others, especially from wise Torah sages, who possess the necessary breadth of mind to look beyond the pressing and sometimes overwhelming issues at hand, and “see the larger picture.”
Rav Shach Haggadah p. 99-100

So many of our choices in life come from within a situation, from within the narrowness of the moment. Again, this is normal and expected. And, it is something that we must take into consideration. Rav Shach’s approach is to recall that we need not struggle alone. We need not think we have to solve the problem by ourselves. Once we are open to the possibility that someone is out there to help us, we can be more receptive to that help. The first step is to be open and willing, to recognize that our perspective in these moments is from within the pain and trauma and that with the help of someone not “within” we can take the next steps along on our journey.

We can and should seek out help from someone who can offer a broader perspective to help us see beyond the narrowness that results from the trauma, pain and difficulty we are looking to emerge from. Remember, just like the image at the top of this post, sometimes we just need help being able to turn around and see something from a different angle.

May each of us, in moments of challenge, be able to find the person or people to turn to who can best help us see things from a different vantage point, helping us to engage with and journey through the difficulties and challenges that we will inevitably face in life.

If you or someone you know is looking to forge ahead and set new goals for the journey of life, we are here to help foster spiritual and emotional growth and change. Schedule your appointment today here. For more information, please contact New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC at 732-314-6758 ext. 100 or via email at newbeginningsspiritualcoach@gmail.com

Searching for the Chametz inside of Us

We are now one month away from Passover. It is a hectic time for most people as the month prior to Passover is spent planning, cleaning and preparing for the holiday. In addition to the physical components of preparing for Passover, there is a practice that begins the laws of Passover in the Shulchan Aruch, which states:

שואלים בהלכות פסח קודם לפסח שלשים יום:

1. We learn the halakhot of Pesach for 30 days before Pesach.
Shulchan Aruch, 429:1

In light of this command, this is the first of many planned posts during this next month based on my personal reading and studying of the Passover Haggadah in preparation for the holiday. My hope is to share from a couple of different commentaries I am reading this year ideas that are not just of importance as we consider the holiday of Passover, but that are fundamental to our growth as spiritual human beings.

To begin, one of the more overused and yet highly important ideas about Passover is the reinterpretation of the laws regarding removing leavened products, Chametz, from our midst, that suggests not only the removal of Chametz in the food sense, but also the removal of our spiritual Chametz, the removal of our arrogance, our ego. We derive this latter idea from a prayer attributed to a Rabbi Alexandri, in which he connects the evil inclination to the yeast in the dough:

וְרַבִּי אָלֶכְּסַנְדְרִי בָּתַר דִּמְצַלֵּי אָמַר הָכִי: ״רִבּוֹן הָעוֹלָמִים, גָּלוּי וְיָדוּעַ לְפָנֶיךָ שֶׁרְצוֹנֵנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנֶךָ, וּמִי מְעַכֵּב? — שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִיסָּה וְשִׁעְבּוּד מַלְכֻיוֹת. יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ שֶׁתַּצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם, וְנָשׁוּב לַעֲשׂוֹת חוּקֵּי רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם״.

that after Rabbi Alexandri prayed, he would say the following:
Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You
that our will is to perform Your will, and what prevents us?
On the one hand, the yeast in the dough, the evil inclination that is within every person;
and the subjugation to the kingdoms on the other.
May it be Your will
that You will deliver us from their hands, of both the evil inclination and the foreign kingdoms,
so that we may return to perform the edicts of Your will with a perfect heart.
Berachot 17a (translation includes commentary by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz)

In reflecting on this spiritual notion of removing Chametz, the egocentric barriers that exists in our lives that negatively impact our growth, I want to share an additional element based on a few select passages from Artscroll’s Rav Shach Haggadah (for more on who Rav Shach is see here).

…But is it really possible for us to search our own hearts and cleanse them of sin? As the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) writes, “The heart is the most deceptive of all things, and it is undependable; who can know it?” (17:9). There is only One Who can truly know what is in man’s heart: “I, Hashem, search men’s hearts and examine their inner thoughts” (17:10).

…We must conclude, said Rav Shach, that although wise men, prophets and angels are incapable of ascertaining what lies in other men’s hearts, each man himself is indeed able to – and expected to – peer into the recesses of his own heart and detect and rectify the imperfections that he finds there.

The reason for this, he explained, is that although it is “I, Hashem, search men’s hearts and examine their inner thoughts” (Jeremiah 17:10), man possesses within him a Divine soul that emanates from God Himself. “The soul of a man is the candle of Hashem, searching all his inner recesses” (Mishlei 20:27). It is with this “candle” that we can indeed search for the “chametz” of our souls and attempt to eradicate it.

…In order to cause dough to be leavened, all one has to do is leave it alone and do absolutely nothing. Similarly, if a person lets down his guard even for a moment, if he ceases to strive for spiritual growth and enhancement, he opens himself up to the disastrous effects of the yetzer hara, who avails himself of the opportunity to sow the seeds of spiritual ruin.
p. 8-10

One of our challenges is sifting through our egos to the point of being able to make real strides spiritually. We make excuses and offer justifications for why we continue to act a certain way, even when we wish to strive towards growth and change. And more often then not, when we don’t see ourselves changing for the better, we stop. Or, when we think we have reached a new place, we stop. Yet, we can never stop striving to find ways to remove our excuses and barriers. Stagnation is not neutral, but it is actually a negative.

I have written about the importance and value of celebrating each step in our growth. Celebrating our victories along the way is of the utmost importance as a way to encourage our continuous striving. It is not about resting on our laurels. Rather, we take another step and then we search again so as to take the next step, and keep going through this process.

As we begin this thirty day stretch leading to Passover, the holiday celebrating our redemption from Egypt, may we not just clean our homes but also work to “clean” ourselves of those things that stand in the way of reaching the spiritual goals and heights we wish to attain.

FAILure is not a Bad Word

This morning, while I was writing in my journal, I noticed something that has come up for me often. Like most people, there are things in life that I shy away from because of previously bad experiences. And as many of us do, when I have a bad experience, I carry with me the burden of feeling like I “failed.” It is true that in certain previous experiences, in so much as they weren’t successful, I allowed the sense of failure to push me in a different direction without considering whether to try again. And so there I sat, thinking and reflecting, and staring at the word “failure” which I had written out on my journal page.

After a few moments, I took a deep breath and looked at the word failure again through a different lens. I realized that I was seeing the word in a different way, recalling something I had heard over the weekend. The word fail can also be an acronym for First Attempt In Learning. To fail means that you tried and didn’t succeed and hopefully you will have another opportunity, so that the “failed” attempt is really the first attempt. And while this is a good metaphor, as I was searching online, I found the image above and an article about the word “failure” also being an acronym. Failure is not the first attempt at learning and then that’s it, you give up and move on. Failure is when you try, don’t find success and then come back and reevaluate. It is when you err and then reflect on the mistakes to hopefully come back stronger the next time.

Failure is part of all of our journeys in life. While we are programmed to see Failure as a setback, in fact, failure is part of our forward moving journey of life. If anything, failure can be a tool that slows us down and if used wisely, a way for us to figure out if we are travelling on the right road and just hit a bump or if we need to take a ramp to another road that bypasses the impassable spot. Or perhaps we need to exit the road we are on completely and travel along a road that veers us off from our previously considered goals and dreams.

Today, my hope is that we can all embrace failure as something that teaches us lessons and helps us reflect on where we are and where we hope we are going.

True Greatness Is Knowing Where We Are

We all have those days where we feel we will never amount to what we wish we would become. We feel small, distant, lost. We don’t know how to find our way forward along the path to find our “greatness.” Instead, we spend so much energy and time seeing all the ways we haven’t reached our life goals.

One area I want to focus on is spiritual growth. In working on our spiritual goals, our spiritual growth, this inability to focus on where we are versus where we aren’t can make it feel like we aren’t having success. We feel distant from our desires to be more connected to our faith, our religion, our trust in Gd. But are we really so far away? Perhaps we aren’t distant but how we perceive things is what is leading to think we are distant. So much of growing along the path of life comes down to the mindset we bring to the moment. I think this is illustrated in the following teaching:

Someone asked the Rebbe Shlit”a how they should deal with their feelings of lack of success. They hear so much from the Rebbe about the high and lofty spiritual levels one should reach, but they feel so far from reaching any of this! The Rebbe answered that the Zohar HaKadosh says that “he who is small is great,” therefore, by a person simply acknowledging where they are truly holding i.e. that they are “small” and not yet on these high levels they learned about, they are showing that they are truly great.
Sea of Wisdom, Parshas Bo 5784 – R. Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern

When we embrace the notion that we aren’t there yet, not in a negative way, but in a growth mindset way, we change the paradigm. It is no longer that our distance from our desired goals is a sign of what we are lacking. Rather, our place now is our “greatness” and through this current greatness, we are on the path to higher levels of spiritual growth.

Today, and everyday, when we take stock of where we are, not where we haven’t gotten to, I hope that we can see we are in the place of today’s greatness, knowing full well we want to journey further to tomorrow’s greatness. May we embrace where we are now and find the inspiration from this spot to move along the road of becoming more and more.

Looking for help in recognizing the greatness that is you? If you or someone you know is looking to forge ahead and set new goals or trying to find a sense of meaning in life, we are here to help foster spiritual and emotional growth and change. Schedule your appointment today here. For more information, please contact New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC at 732-314-6758 ext. 100 or via email at newbeginningsspiritualcoach@gmail.com

The Path Reveals Itself Over Time

Wouldn’t it be great if we had the roadmap of life in front of us, knowing where we were supposed to go, when to make a turn and when to recognize we had fulfilled what it is we are here to fulfill? Life would be much simpler, though I would guess it would also become too boring. When everything is predictable, we tend to stop trying because we pretty much know the results.

I am always thinking about the road I am traveling on, wondering if I have read the road signs along the way to know if my decisions were in line with how the story of my life is to play out. While at times I, and I assume most of us, have taken side roads and exit ramps to different areas, we inevitably seem to be drawn back to some sort of main path. Of course, we know what we want, or try to establish what we want, yet often what we want and what we live are not one and the same. Part of this is the reality of not just being on an individual road but a road with each other, reacting to the world around us. And part of this is because perhaps what we want is not our purpose, our reason for being. Recently, I came across an idea that has me reconsidering how we should be looking ahead on our personal roads.

There is an important, fundamental idea in avodas Hashem (serving Gd) that the tachlis, the ultimate purpose (of the world, and of a person in this world as well) is constantly hidden from a person. This is because a person should constantly yearn and long for the tachlis. The tachlis is never clearly revealed to a person; what is revealed is only the closest next level to a person ( that they need to and can reach). Similarly, at all times (through every particular detail of life a person goes through), only the next small step is revealed to a person. However, a person’s “next level,” the one in reach of him, is not revealed. Therefore, people are often confused about what the tachlis is, and aren’t clear as to what the ultimate level they need to achieve is. But, in reality, a person doesn’t need to know more than this – just knowing the next level they need to get to is enough for our avodah (following this is the closest one can get to the tachlis).
Sea of Wisdom, Parashat Va’Era 5784 – R. Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern

Faith (Emunah) is one of the most difficult things to cultivate and experience (I discuss some of this in a recent post). Faith is something we must actively work on and actively cultivate. We cannot just sit and wait. Part of this process is being open to recognizing that while we might not know where we are headed, we can see small glimmers of the road ahead. Faith is also realizing that we will only ever see small glimmers of the road ahead and that we must have the confidence to move forward nevertheless because the path will reveal itself over time. Faith is maintaining the hope we will be able to discern what we are seeing and know how best to approach the next stretch of road.

Looking to start fresh? If you or someone you know is looking to forge ahead and set new goals or trying to find a sense of meaning in life, we are here to help foster a spiritual and emotional growth and change. Contact New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC at 732-314-6758 ext. 100 or via email at newbeginningsspiritualcoach@gmail.com

Change the World by Fulfilling your Role

Who doesn’t want to change the world? I imagine most of us wish things would seem better. We wish we could do something dramatic and monumental to change things for the better. And yet, most of us are taught adages like the one in the image above, that wisdom and life experience will teach us how the best way to bring about change is to make changes to oneself. Through these changes, we might find that we are doing our personal part, fulfilling our life’s mission and through our work and changed approach, we are in fact changing the world around us.

“When we fulfill our divine mission in the world, we elevate not merely ourselves and our immediate surroundings, but ultimately also the entire cosmos (Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook)”
RCA Siddur Avodat HaLev P. 20

In my work with others, I often find that one of the biggest barriers to success and to change is spending too much time looking outwards. We all know the harms of comparing ourselves to the images put out on social media. We get lost in the shuffle of seeing the fun, the excitement, the slick marketing. We start to day dream and wonder and feel a sense of jealousy. And then we go down the rabbit hole of beating ourselves up for not being like…

A lot of the work of coaching others through challenging points in life is helping them look back inside. This comes about through exploration, creating space for the client to do self-detective work, bringing forth aspects of who they are and who they want to be. This is true in grief work while helping someone navigate the muddy waters of re-emerging into a different world without the deceased. This is true in working with people on self-discovery as they work towards forging a new road along the path of life. This is true for people trying to make a choice, helping them find THE question that will help unlock the door of the decision they wish to make.

When we have that moment of discovery, that new insight into the life we are trying to live, we are then open to the changes we want to see outwardly as well. Now, of course, there are things we wish we could change that all of this self-discovery and focus won’t change. At least not on our own. Nevertheless, we must do our part, for without it there would be no chance for change at all.

Our mission in this world is to leave it better for the next person. By discovering that each step along the way is not just lifting up ourselves but all those around us, we will hopefully discover some of the change we wish to see.

It’s a New Year and a new opportunity to start fresh. If you or someone you know is looking to forge ahead and set new goals or trying to find a sense of meaning in life, we are here to help foster a spiritual and emotional growth and change. Contact New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC at 732-314-6758 ext. 100 or via email at newbeginningsspiritualcoach@gmail.com

The Importance and Power of the Desire for Success

I think most of us make the mistake of thinking that our emotions are things that just happen to us. We presume we just feel and that we have zero control over those feelings. And once we feel something, then that will be it, we won’t have to do things to build upon the feeling.

When it comes to accomplishing the things we wish to accomplish, I often wonder if we are just waiting for the inspiration to push forward instead of taking the steps necessary to see our goals come to fruition. In reading a lot about goal setting and striving to become a better self, I have come to recognize that one of the biggest hurdles to success is fostering the will and desire to take on a new opportunity. While it is easy to say we want to succeed and we want to accomplish new things, very often it is merely us paying lip service and not taking action. Last Shabbat, I came across the following piece which speaks about the power of desiring to succeed as the first step to spiritual growth:

The Power of Desire
Someone asked the Rebbe for financial advice. The Rebbe said: The most important thing a person has to have is a strong desire, whether it is a desire to open a business, to build something, to invent something. A person has to have a powerful desire for something, that is the first step. Once a person develops a strong desire for something physical, they should then transfer that desire into something spiritual, and something pertaining to their avodas Hashem, and then they will truly feel and understand what a strong desire is. With a strong enough desire, a person will succeed b’ezras Hashem in what they try to accomplish.
(Shabbos Parshas Vayechi 5784)
Sea of wisdom for Parashas Shemos 5784 – R. Yitchak Meir Morgenstern

We see that desire is not something we just claim to have but it is something we must actively cultivate and embrace. When we fully embrace the person we wish to become or the thing we truly wish to accomplish, then we will be on the road to success. The lack of a cultivated and focused desire to achieve something is often the barrier to reach the destination we have in mind and is the death of so many of our goals and resolutions.

As we continue to evaluate the goals we have set for ourselves, we should take the time to first examine what it is we really wish to accomplish and see if the desire for success is truly there to be our guide along the way. Don’t be afraid if the desire that was is no longer present as it could be we either need to reinvest our energy into our wishes or perhaps we need to make changes to the goal we had in mind and the process of reaching that goal.

In either case, may each of us find the willpower and passion to take our first steps to our desired goals for becoming the people we wish to become.

2024 – Another New Year, Another Moment of Reflection

Yes, it is January 3. Yes, we are three days into 2024. And yes, writing about goal setting “after the fact” seems out of place. Yet, besides there never being a bad time to reflect on goal setting, I would argue that January 3rd is the best time to have this discussion.

Think about it like this:

December 31, 2023 – We decide on new goals for the year, one’s that speak to our hopes for the new year. We have lists of things we wish to change and resolve to work on changing them.

January 1, 2024 – Yes, we should start Day One. And we do. And it seems so easy to get started because for most of us, January 1 is a vacation day. It is easy to work on goals when the work of achieving our goals is our only task.

January 2, 2024 – Back to work. Back to the grind. This is the day of navigating how the goals we have in mind will meld into our busy lives. And I would guess that by last night, many of the goals we had in mind are already shifting around. Many of us are asking not just how to find the time but where do fit in the changes. Some are already feeling like January 2 was not much different than December 29th, meaning a humdrum work day that came and went.

Which brings us back to January 3. Today is the real litmus test. We saw and felt the exhilaration of starting off on the right foot that was January 1 and then the realistic struggle of meshing our hopes with our realities on January 2. The question is, what did we learn from these two experienes.

When we set goals for ourselves, whenever we do this, it is important to remember a couple of key points:

The goal is the end product and our job needs to begin with not just where we wish to go but how we best think we can get there.
It is OK to try an approach and fail at it. Even in the failure there is success. The January 2 people who struggled to maintain the January 1 process can learn and adapt practices to more realistically to achieve the goals they have set for themselves. A failure is not a failure but an opportunity for growth.
Be compassionate about your choices. One of the biggest obstacles to staying the course with our goals is to celebrate the gains and forgive oneself moments of stagnation and falling backwards.
Today is a New Beginning. And so is tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, etc. Each day brings us a chance to recalibrate, refocus and reconfigure as we need.

May each of us find the goals we wish to have, the ability to accomplish them step by step and the flexibility to integrate our new hopes into the lives we find ourselves living each and every day.

Podcast Episode Recommendation: The Importance of Giving Thanks

I know this theme gets played out many times, yet it is so important to remind ourselves again and again about the importance of gratitude. Gratitude is not just merely about saying “Thank You,” but it is a mindset we would do well to cultivate. To live a life of gratitude is a daily spiritual practice, from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep.

Unfortunately, there are many moments in life when it is quite challenging to maintain this gratitude mindset. We face moments and times of tragedy and trauma and we get subsumed by the all too real powerful emotions crisis presents to us. Yet, we wish to persevere, to live and to grow. And we can, with much work and support. Gratitude can be one of the various tools we can work to harness in those difficult moments.

As we think about gratitude today, I invite you to listen to one perspective on the importance of giving thanks I had the opportunity to listen to this morning. My colleague and friend Rabbi Benyamin Vineburg, BCC, recorded a conversation on Thanksgiving with his father Rabbi Dr. Sid Vineburg, Ed. D for the Be Wholly Podcast. I highly recommend listening to this episode, as it is a personal look at finding gratitude living with chronic illness. See below for the links:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2277823/14028305

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/be-wholly-with-rabbi-ben-vineburg/id1716208253?i=1000636720404

If you or someone you know is struggling, spiritually and/or emotionally, trying to find a sense of meaning in these times of struggle, know that you are not alone. Contact New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC at 732-314-6758 ext. 100 or via email at newbeginningsspiritualcoach@gmail.com

Why Is It So Difficult to Share My Thoughts?

I woke up this morning thinking about all the ideas I want to share. And then I came to this page, ready to go and… NOTHING. I suddenly found myself tongue-tied, or maybe it is writer’s block, but either way, I found myself staring at a blank screen. Eventually, I decided to just start writing to see what would happen, so this is my journey at the moment.

Yesterday, I came across a quote,

“Life Gets Better When You Decide You Can Reinvent Yourself as Often as You Need.”
LinkedIn

Life is funny. One moment we think we have it all figured out. We know what we want to say or do, and the next, when we try to actualize what it is we have figured out, we hit a wall. And the wall is the block we have for treating Today as a new opportunity. We know we want to. We know we perhaps even need a refresh. And yet, when we try to hit the refresh button, we just can’t seem to do it.

When we are working towards today being a New Beginning, we are in essence trying to enter the road of life from a new entrance. We have the opportunity to do so. From the moment we wake up, we have choices to make. These choices are not easy.

Should I stay in bed for five more minutes or get up?
Should I start my day doomscrolling or wait to look at my phone?
Learn or write?
Exercise or not?
Etc – choose your own morning struggles

We all know what we wish the answers to these kinds of questions are. And yet, we find ourselves tired, worn down, beaten up, just plain exhausted. So we inevitably fall back on the habits we wish we could change because they are comfortable and easy, even though they aren’t the best choices we could be making.

And this is Why It Is So Difficult. Even now, as I am sitting and sharing, thinking about how it is a daily grind to break the habits we have when we want to improve ourselves, I find my mind drifting to all the things I need to do or should be doing instead of writing. Of course, this in itself is part of the writer’s block struggle I am having. Nevertheless, the other voice in my mind is reminding me about how this action, this choice, is important because I want it to be important.

What can we do when we feel that the daily reinvention we wish we could facilitate just doesn’t seem to be in the cards?

Choose one thing to change and work on that and that alone.
Start with just a small chunk of time to focus on the change. It could be as short as a minute of focused gratitude, or a minute of doing something instead of more social media scrolling.
Make this small thing the habit to work on for a week (a week seems like an interval many use for small habitual changes).
Build week over week. If we keep at one new thing a week to help reinvent ourselves, we will eventually see bigger growth, bigger changes.
When you despair that the change is not working well, don’t fret. As I have shared many times on this site, each step forward is one to celebrate. We need to focus on the wins, not the things we inevitably will continue to struggle with.

Let me conclude. This writing exercise this morning is my attempt to show myself this process as well. I really wasn’t sure where my thoughts would take me this morning but here we are. We have journeyed together today to see how just trying to do can produce something.

May each of us in these challenging times remember that all we need to do is take that first step forward along the path we wish to forge. May today, and everyday, bring opportunity for reinvention and for renewed possibilities.