Which Way Are We Going?

The first six months of this year end this weekend. We are halfway to next year. Which way are we headed?

How have the first six months of this year been for us? What has surprised us, pleasantly and otherwise? How have we gained, and what have we left along the way?

Are things different for us than they were six months ago?

I remember people and conversations most clearly from the year so far. Taking the time to listen, accompanying people through struggles and lessons, paying attention and witnessing their wisdom and truth. These have shaped my year more than most of the books or articles I have read, what I have talked about, the things which seemed so urgent at the time.

What are our plans and hopes for the rest of this year? How are we putting our core values into practice?

How will things be different for us six months from now?

We cannot expect results to change when we do not change our behavior. The transition from the first six months to the next six months is a good moment to reflect on what results we would like to change, and what behaviors we want to change to create those new results. I am looking forward to a few changes of my own to help me reach the results I hope to see six months from now.

The present, the moment between the past and the future, is the only opportunity we have to put those changes into practice.

Each month, each week, each day, is filled with opportunities to practice changes which create new results in our lives. How will we take advantage of these opportunities?

What results have we accomplished during the first six months of this year?

What would we like to begin practicing during the next six months?

Where Are We Going This Summer?

This may be the summer after high school, or college, graduation for us. It could be the summer after we finished grad school, or our dissertation. We may have spent our entire life working toward this summer. Now it is here.

It may be a summer filled with expectations, anxieties, and questions for us. After focusing on a specific goal for years, we may have no clear path forward.

This might be a summer just like last summer for us. We may have planned our career, followed everyone’s advice, stayed on track. Maybe we have done what we set out to do, played by the rules, done our best. After a few years of learning how to do what to do in the real world, here we are. We may be very good at what we do. It may be exactly what we hoped we would be doing when we looked forward to this summer.

It is possible we are wondering whether it is enough for us. How much longer will we want to do this? What else would we like to do? What else could we do?

This may be a summer when we are looking toward retirement. We have had a good, satisfying career. It might be we are eager to spend more time with our family, or travel, or volunteer. When will we have enough to retire? What would we like to be doing next summer, or the summer after that?

We put so much of our energy into predicting the future and remembering the past. This may a summer for us to take a deep breath and spend some time in the present. This may be the moment when we pause to listen to ourselves and the world around us.

How Will We Recognize Which Way to Go Next?

Each of us finds our own way to discern which way we will go next.

Some of us tend to overthink each step on our way. Other people see us as suffering from “analysis paralysis,” trying to think our way forward intellectually.

Others of us are more intuitive, or depend more on our emotions. We are looking for the direction which “feels right,” where we find an internal sense of security and where we fit.

Some of us want to be as prepared and planned as we can, while others of us are more impulsive.

We each need to find our own way. There is no one who can tell us which way is the way we need to go.

This weekend, at the middle of the year, is an opportunity for us to take time to sit and listen, looking for which way we will go.

Some of us will recognize some adjustments we can make to fine tune our way forward. There may be changes we have already considered making which will finally become clear to us.

Others of us will find significant changes which will redirect the course of our months and years.

This can be a summer we look back on as a turning point in our lives.

Adjusting Our Direction

We look forward to growing and learning, to becoming the people we have the potential to be.

Each of us chooses which way we would like to go and takes the steps we need to take to go there. It can be challenging to discern the direction we would like to take and to take the practical steps we need to take.

The next six months are filled with opportunities for us to move in the directions we choose to seek.

This weekend is a moment we can spend discerning here we will go next. We sit still and listen to the wisdom within us and the wisdom all around us.

The first six months of this year have already been spent. How wisely have we invested our time? What would we like to change during the next six months?

Where are we going?

When will we take time this weekend to contemplate which way to go next?

How do we know which way we would like to go?

[Image by randihausken]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual director in Southern California. He is a recovering assistant district attorney and associate university professor, and is a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is http://StrategicMonk.com and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.