another year older

“Know how to live the time that is given you.”
~ Dario Fo

I celebrated my birthday this weekend (it was yesterday, August 22). Among wonderful well-wishes from family and friends I was treated to a lovely salmon dinner Saturday evening, and visited the Renaissance Fair in Bristol, Wisconsin Sunday. The weather was lovely and I enjoyed the costumes of all the fairgoers and staff.

A viking

A man on stilts

A witchy person

Dancers and musicians

Beautiful sculptures by The Copper Dragon

Last year at this time I was in London (and visited the quite medieval Tower of London) evaluating an entirely different job opportunity.

I remember fretting all night about where my life was going, weighing pros and cons of a fork in the road, and being concerned with impressing “the powers that be”. It turned out I shouldn’t have worried about any of that as I was well-respected and welcomed.

Fast forwarding to today I realize that losing sleep over my future back then had no bearing on how things turned out. I ended up making an entirely different decision a few weeks later, which has brought me to a place I didn’t envision last year. Since then there has been tremendous personal growth, a lot of readjustment, and much gratitude in realigning my life to what feeds the spirit while exploring what will help me live with integrity and joy.

“We write our own destiny; we become what we do.”
~ Madame Chiang Kai-Shek

With all the twists and turns my business research is taking–and having had a bit of a “hurry up with your life” antsy-ness the past few weeks–it is good to realize that no matter what my worries and concerns are, a year from now things will look much different from what I am fretting about today. What matters now as opposed to last year is that today I am in control of my destiny, instead of giving a corporate group the power of deciding when and where I get to be somewhere new and evolutionary.

No matter what the situation, one should always remember one’s own power in charting the journey of life, and find cause for celebration every day. What are you celebrating this week?

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present
thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.”
~ Gautama Siddharta