What Does Success Mean?
Come, come whoever you are.
"Hey Meadow," I asked, "What does success mean?"
Meadow, my soft-spoken eight-year-old, taking this question rather seriously, looked towards the ceiling and spun around several times in my pink fuzzy desk chair.
"Wellllll," she began, with serious intent in her voice. She shared her understanding with me as I sat smiling, waiting on the edge of my yoga mat.
"It's like when you set a goal for yourself and then you DO it." Proudly she responded concluding her answer with a confirming tilt of her head forward. Her blue eyes, framed by her tiny kid glasses, sparkled.
She was so sure of her answer, and I'd say she is correct. Of course, my question was sort of a game, one that has many correct answers.
I asked her because I had a post-it note with this very question stuck to my desk. It's something I'd been asking myself.
Martha Beck reminds us that the only thing we can take with us when we leave this place is the evolution of our spirit. I hold this belief to be true as well.
And then I return to the question: What does success mean?
I can't really answer that for myself until I know what my goals are, if I'm also holding Meadow's answer to be true.
So I ask myself: What are my goals?
I want to live in alignment with my purpose, because that's where I've felt alive and centered.
I dare to say that all people may feel or have felt alive and centered when living in alignment with their purpose (and the healthiest expression of it). Not their job, although that may be a piece of it.
Astrology doesn't solve it all, and doesn't do the work of introspection for me but it's a tool that helps me excavate and bring into a blurry focus my purpose.
I believe that when we look within and ask these questions quietly and with receptivity, life feels different. Life feels better.
But life is still life. All the bills and the scheduling and the chores remain. I work hard to remind myself not to be lost in the illusion of ever "having it all together" or "all figured out." Pema Chodron has planted these seeds within my soul.
For me, I'm certain it will always be a messy path. But I'm also certain that something about this messy path is mine to walk.
Wishing you time to ponder your own unique messy path. We really are on individual journeys but they require our interconnected support and love.
xo,
Marjorie
Thank you for this, my wise daughter… and granddaughter. ❤️