Thursday, September 6, 2007

Stepping Out Into The Unfamiliar - Making Life Work For You

by Donna L. Watkins

The past two weeks have brought life (my birthday) and death (of a family member) to a present moment. So often we are busy doing our day to day and living in the future or the past, with the present being so routine, there's not much thought about it. Sometimes we are so busy worrying over the future that we don't take the time necessary to design it as we'd like to have it.

That's been the case for me in regards to taking enough time to beat rheumatoid arthritis. The herbs and supplements have made me comfortable enough for the past 21 years that I didn't have to be distracted with a lot of pain, so I continued "the routine."

It takes faith to step out into an unfamiliar territory and walk the narrow paths required until life feels comfortable again, but that's what I have chosen to do. I've known it for a long time ... but it usually takes a shove to get us to change course.

I began The Herbs Place business in 1982, Randal joined in 1988 full-time and it incorporated in 1991. It's been my "comfortable place." I engineered it to meet the lifestyle needed as cared for my aging parents, home schooled our child, and then on to the internet to busy ourselves away from the "empty nest syndrome."

Comfortable seasons of life get hectic and boring, but usually we just keep doing what we've always been doing and go nowhere that we want to go. Until events and circumstances force us a bit more deeply into our dreams and desires and life passions. We ask ourselves what is it we REALLY want to do?

Having chosen to get out of the rat race and work at home back in the early 80's has allowed me to enjoy the work I do. So much so, that it hasn't seemed like work. I designed my role in the business any way I wanted it and left the rest for others. You could call it a dream job. It allowed me to do what I wanted to do and to arrange my own time schedule.

Thing is though .... I love to work. I am a doer. Although I saw the wonderful side of simply being and wrote an article entitled, "Life Is In The Being, Not In The Doing," a number of years back, I kept making the choice to DO and not BE.

Finally I have chosen to take time for me. Just to BE and see what bubbles up. I seem to have a passion to write so I will continue that through this blog. No scheduled deadlines like I had for the 17 publications I did a month for the business.

There are 14,500 subscribers on the three newsletters I did and I hope you will stay with me on this journey as I continue to share the same kind of information in this blog that I did in the mailings ... in a much easier and quicker format for me.

When we take that first step into the unknown, but do so in obedience to the inner voice that guides us if we will allow ourselves to be led, there appears before us a whole new world of possibilities for dreams and seemingly buried hopes to come alive and become reality.

This photographic journey of somebody we've known since 1987 is rather symbolic of making the best of circumstances, taking risks, setting out to make the goals, and finding the joy and renewal of the process. Take time to enjoy some awesome photographs of Zion National Park in Utah relating to some philosophical wisdom of "the hike" through life.

I talked with a dear friend over the weekend and she said she'd just come across a card I'd written out for her many years back and it seemed to apply to her life at this moment. Funny, it applies to mine also ... I bet it will apply to yours too!

On the front of the card:

Ponder ....
Answer ....
Go For It!

On the back of the card:

• If I didn't have to work for a living what would I love to do?
• If I were given a million dollars tax-free, what would I do with it?
• If I found out I only have 6 healthy months to live, what would I do with them?


May I suggest you ponder and answer the questions ... and then go for it!

Copyright and Reprint Information
All photos remain the property of Donna L. Watkins and may not be republished without written permission. You may forward or use this copyrighted article on a website if you include the following credit and an active link back to this site:
© 2000-2007 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission. Visit the author's website, TheNatureInUs.com for more articles and free email subscription. Link URL: http://www.thenatureinus.com

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