Inner Inklings vs Mythical Beings
Lean into those nudges with curiosity and grow deeper.
Once upon a time (circa 2002), I stood alone in the sanctuary of a congregation I had recently been hired full time to serve. Awash with gratitude and excitement, I inwardly rejoiced that I had arrived! I had finally found my passion path and was getting paid to do it!
But, as quickly as that moment came, it went. Lost to the full stop inner thought, “this is not the end-all be-all”.
Which threw me for one helluva of a loop. 😶
At the time, I believed it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me (spoiler: it wasn’t). Still, it left an impression on me that didn’t make sense until many ‘out of religion’ years later. Yep, it was an experience that helped me see how so many of us view our lives as linear - a straight line with a definitive beginning and end.
That we tend to move through our days with an anticipation and an expectation that at some point we will arrive at the end-all be-all of who we were meant to be and what we were meant to achieve. And, that we will once and for all figure out this thing called life and finally be able to exhale and breathe.
But, what if life isn’t linear? What if it involves more than a map of ‘start here, finish there’?
And, even more so, what if framing life as a straight line is actually holding us back, or walling us off, from becoming who we are truly meant to be?
I mean, could being so fixated on some imagined destination cause us to completely miss - or intentionally ignore - the inner inklings gently nudging us toward a deeper understanding of ourselves? 🤔
Hmmm…what if…
What if, instead, we stepped back and chose to view our lives as seasons? As more cyclical in nature? As cycles that involve times of growth and times of death? Times of learning and evolving as well as times of leaving and letting go?
That just as spring turns into summer, summer into fall, fall into winter and winter into spring once more, perhaps these seasons of our lives lead us to discover the truest version of ourselves.
Over and over and over again.
Deeper and deeper we grow.
Since that morning in the sanctuary, I’ve become more aligned with who I truly am than I had ever thought possible because I learned to listen to those inner inklings and I dared to lean in and be curious about those gentle nudges.
It hasn’t been easy but it has been worth it.
Worth it and wonderfully freeing (despite the initial fear and uncertainty) to know that it isn’t some magical, mythical Being dictating my every step, but rather the truest, most authentic version of myself giving guidance to be, and become, who I am truly meant to be.
What inner inklings are nudging you?
Gentle reader, be curious and lean in.