News from Jules | 10.08.2018 | What Are You Harvesting?

one lesson about integrity every week

Looking ahead to this week, as well as the whole month of October, there is so much.

So much it won’t fit on my weekly chart.

There are sticky notes hanging off the sides. Uh oh.

But how could that be? September was my big month.

I traveled for work and family trips, worked several gigs and kicked off a new consulting project, as well as moved from the cottage to a house.

Now, I can see how September’s fullness was only the transition, the ripening as we move into fall. Now is the time of harvest. 

My first instinct is to reduce, reschedule, remove.

And yet.

And yet, each project, each task, feels true, aligned, necessary. Ripe.

And so, like the winemakers and farmers I’ve seen in the Columbia River Gorge over these last few weeks, I know they must be harvested.

But what, I’ve been wondering?

What am I harvesting?

For the last two weeks since the autumn equinox on Sept. 22, I’ve been holding this question.

Meaning to sit down with a cup of tea and write out a list of all the stuff showing up right now, I figured then I could answer this question.

Then, while savoring my second Sabbath in the new house in a new neighborhood, it hit me: I’m harvesting the intentions I planted in spring and bloomed this summer

This felt like a simultaneous “Duh” and an “Aha.”

Ah yes, all the “stuff” (e.g.: projects, friends, stuff-stuff) showing up right now is simply manifestations of my deep intentions for the year.

What I knew I needed on the path forward, in this learning journey

Deep community, prosperity, intimacy, rhythm, to name a few.

These intentions have not been neglected or forgotten, though I have been at risk lately of distraction from the “what” showing up, instead of remembering the “why.”

Right as they are coming to fruition.

We can not be distracted by the harvest—the hectic gathering of the crops—as the reason for the season. 

Just as Sabbath is the yin of rest to the yang of effort in the rest of our lives, fall is a season of balance relative to the greater cycle, to the whole.

A season for extra efforting—from our intentions, not just because—to fulfill the current growth cycle.

Nothing more, nothing less.

What have you planted?

What are you harvesting?

May your yields be true, aligned and necessary this week. 

Love,
Jules


I share a lesson learned about integrity every Monday. Sign up for delivery right to your inbox. Want more? There’s lots more lessons learned here on my blog, so have fun exploring and commenting about your own insights! 

News from Jules | 08.20.2018 | What If It’s Been Wrong All Along?

one lesson about integrity every week

Most of the time there isn’t a right or a wrong.

There’s a spectrum.

This makes life tricky to say the least.

And so, we do the best we can.

Over and over again. Often until we have unconscious habits.

Things we don’t stop to question—until something happens and/or somebody says something.

Because sometimes there is a right and a wrong way. And sometimes it’s been wrong all along.

“You’re doing it wrong.”

“Wait, what?”

This is what my Physical Therapist told me last month as I ran on the treadmill for the first time several weeks after my bike accident.

Apparently, I was driving my heels into the ground, a much harder impact for my legs, my hips, my back, instead of kicking off my toes.

Well, no wonder running has always been so difficult! 

Of course, every body’s different. But, there are natural and unnatural ways for our bodies to move. And, apparently modern shoes encourage unnatural ways of moving.

Thus, there is a right and a wrong way to run.

Running this new, right way made a night and day difference. It was so much smoother and easier.

I had no idea how much harder I was making it on myself than it needed to be, than it should be.

Instead of questioning the process, I blamed it on myself.

I had sensed something was off, but I told myself it was because, “I didn’t have a runner’s body.”

Pushing through recurring injuries and rehab over the last 15 years, finding the triumph of accomplishment just slightly more rewarding than the struggle it took to compete—I just kept going.

No questions asked.

Discomfort had become my norm.

Constantly ignored, my body had long ago given up on offering warning signs and settled for compensating—its attempt at finding equilibrium—and surviving, which I mistook as thriving.

I ran a total of 12 miles in a relay race a couple weeks ago. Because of my injured knee, I ran intervals: 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking. During each 4-minute segment, I refocused on running the right way with each step, even as I grew tired.

Even injured, I marveled at how much I enjoyed running now that I knew how to do it right.

Sometimes there is a right and a wrong way. And sometimes it’s been wrong all along.

It started off wrong and we let it stay wrong.

Settling for the wrong way holds us back from being whole.

We know how to be whole, how to be in our natural state.

Our bodies tell us how all the time. Are you listening?

All it takes is pausing to listen, asking for help and then receiving it.

The whole cannot be whole without all of you.

May you have the courage to listen and follow your body’s guidance this week.

Love,
Jules


I share a lesson learned about integrity every Monday. Sign up for delivery right to your inbox. Want more? There’s lots more lessons learned here on my blog, so have fun exploring and commenting about your own insights!