Crossroads & Intersections

Opening a New Year is a visible intersection between past and future. Other junctures are trickier, more difficult to see and identify. It is usually 20-20 hindsight that shows a roadmap revealing the crossroads.  When beginning any new cycle, it’s a good practice to stand still, even better, lean back, open up a big map to take stock and allow the invisible world to collude with the visible. It’s helpful to comprehend and sensitize ourselves to the powerful undercurrents mobilizing our sense of direction. If you ask what are the most powerful directional influences in this moment, most of us respond with a list including: Self, relationships, work, and health. ‘Self’ being far and way the most important as all else flows from our sense of Self. It is also the most difficult to see and manage for most of what creates it lives far beneath conscious mass~ icebergs below the surface of the sea waiting for the bold, the imperious, the ego driven Titanic. Those icebergs force re-evaluation asking, “What prevents me from my destination? Who do I need to become to get there?”

Providing an assessment of Self is a powerful way to begin any journey. Begin with acknowledgement, not a damnation of failure. Start by seeing your particular genius. I’m not referring to what we have come to think of as genius, such as the talents of a Mozart, or an Oprah. Rather, I return to the original sensibility of genius, that of a ‘guiding spirit.’ The Greek’s used the word ‘daemon,’ or divine nature to convey a similar essence. This is the essential marrow to suck, taste, enjoy as you expand and honor yourself in a New Year’s evaluation.

As you head out from this new crossroads ask, “Am I in touch with a Spirit that acknowledges its genius?” Is my vocation reflective of that genius, or is it the glitter and chaff of tedious ambition? Have I allowed my heart to break letting the light show through its broken shards? Has my core, my marrow and gristle grown resilient and grateful? Am I willing to share my genius in collaborations where I may become compost for their light? Is my Daemon powerful enough to throw itself into unknown gravitational fields of possibility? Is my watermark to be one of generosity or of privilege? Am I willing to risk, or remain quietly and comfortably asleep with everyone else on the Titanic?”