What do you long for?
Courage, Longing, Sex Tables, Bumpkins
Deep within you there’s a compass waiting to show you where your greatness lies: where your highest level of contribution is, where your joy and peace can be found.
You can spend your entire life waiting for permission to do what your soul longs for today. Or you can choose to be one of those quirky, weird, different, risky, and fiercely courageous people who carves his own path.
Bumpkins at last
We’re moving out "into the country," away from the insanely convenient city of Austin where we can get everything from a taco, to a toaster, to a dildo, to a full on sex table delivered to us in under an hour. Away from one of the coolest neighborhoods in one of the coolest cities in the country. Away from the "action" and all of the "opportunity."
For 14 years, since my experience in wilderness therapy, I've felt drawn to go back into nature.
And for years, we’ve become so clear that we feel our best when we are immersed in nature.
But in thinking about moving, we've been afraid. What if we can't hang out with our friends as much? What if we get lonely? What if life is just harder farther out?
I'm just starting this new business. What if it fails because I'm not meeting new people who might want to go on trips?
And maybe we will. And maybe it will.
We have spent years thinking about this. Trying to rationalize this decision. And we are no closer to having a definitive answer.
We’re allowing ourselves to be guided by a deeper listening and trust in something greater.
We’re allowing ourselves to be pulled by our longing.
We're country bumpkins at last.
"Your life is at stake"
I take for granted that I will live until I'm 80, 90 or 100 years old. Which sort of feels like forever. And when I feel like I’ll live forever, it's easy for me to say "someday." Someday I'll do that thing I deeply want to do but am too afraid to do, too busy to do, too lazy to do right now.
But death always looms.
I've had over a dozen friends die over the years from addiction and suicide. I've known others, young and healthy people, who died in accidents or of rare diseases. And I know countless people whose lives are like the walking dead. Punching the clock at a job they hate. Sweeping things under the rug with their family. Stuffing their hopes, dreams and curiosities in a closet.
I'm sure you can relate.
In the landmark forum (a popular personal development course), they say "your life is at stake."
It's rarely convenient, easy or clear exactly when we should start something new, make a big change, or take the leap. So the time is always now.
Save up that money, quit your job, and travel with your family for 3 months
Write poetry and recite it for passerby in a park
Plan the most epic adventure you could possibly imagine and orient your life to making it possible.
Tell your mom all of the ways in which you are successful because of the love and example she provided for you
Do service work
Go into a completely new, foreign and exciting career
Start painting
A relevant poem by the late John O'Donohue:
For Longing Blessed be the longing that brought you here And quickens your soul with wonder. May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe. May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take. May the forms of your belonging—in love, creativity, and friendship— Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul. May the one you long for long for you. May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire. May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling. May your mind inhabit life with the sureness with which your body inhabits the world. May your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage. May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency. May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire. To discover the new direction your longing (your compass) wants you to take. May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
A couple other things I want to share with you
🧠 Random thought
We should all be aiming to create sacred geometry in our careers. Sacred geometry combines simple shapes (circles, squares and triangles) into stunningly beautiful patterns. When we combine all of our unique interests, skills and innate gifts (however simple they may be to us) we can create something that no one has ever created. Something no one could ever create.
"You can escape competition through authenticity, when you realize that no one can compete with you on being you." -Naval Ravikant
🎸🥁For any Tool fans out there
My buddy Mansal Denton sent me this incredible Reddit thread exploring some of the symbolism used in their music and their art. And it's so much deeper than I expected.