Morning Musings
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
On an average day, there are roughly 472 ideas that I want to play with.
Right now, for instance, these are just a few of the ideas that I want to explore more:
That your job doesn’t have to fulfill you, it just has to pay the bills. Your hobbies, on the other hand, ought to make you very glad to be alive.
A non-negotiable requirement for any job: it must leave you with enough energy at the end of the day to pursue the things that do fulfill you
How a career is different than a job and why a career does need to actually fulfill you. It has to fulfill you because careers come with sacrifices. If you have a career, you might not have much energy left at the end of the day. And, if the career and the sense of purpose it gives you mean enough, that trade-off can be okay.
Why a vocation is different than all of the above (hobby, job, career)
Exploring why, of the thousands of words I’ve published on the Internet this week, the most commented-on topic is one single sentence about what a job is and what it isn’t
A message a friend sent me about the point of spiritual living and why none of us should get stuck healing, healing, healing without living, living, living
A sentence from my astrological reading that makes me starry-eyed: “Avoid office work or overly detailed work. This is not the lifetime for tedious work.”
How excited my mom is to see what her astrological chart says about her life’s purpose
A workshop on resilience that I want to create
The exact expression on my husband’s face when I finally accept wisdom he’s been spouting for years, then give Liz Gilbert credit instead of him
Potatoes
What about potatoes? I’m not sure. But it’s critical to Sam’s happiness that I remind him at least once a day how Irish I am. Since his happiness is very important to me, I put potatoes on the list.
I love ideas. I love pondering, mulling over, dancing with, delighting in and otherwise playing with them.
I love, love, love ideas. Love them.
And yet, something strange happens to me when I’m around other people. All of these ideas that dance through my head, delighting me when I’m alone, fly right out. I sit there, awkwardly, wondering what to chat about.
Then I turn to potatoes. Enthralling conversationalist, I am.
Fortunately, a few months ago, I heard a captivating idea on a podcast. Glennon Doyle, while discussing her early writing days, shared wisdom that she received from a friend.
“Use your writing as a flare, Glennon,” the friend said. “Use your writing to talk about the kind of things you want to talk about, then people who want to talk about the same things will find you.”
And Glennon wrote away. Morning after morning, she woke up before the rest of her family and wrote about what she was pondering. Then a community formed. A community of people who were interested in discussing the ideas Glennon was sharing with her morning blog posts.
Then more magic happened: as Glennon wrote and wrote, she found clarity. She got clear on what mattered most to her, what she wanted to do with her life, and how she could contribute in a way that filled her cup.
Then, the Universe conspired to reward Glennon’s efforts with a writing fairy tale. She got a book deal and went on to share stages with Liz Gilbert and Oprah, before knocking it out of the park with two international bestsellers.
That daily sharing of ideas: it worked out for her.
So I’ve decided to try the same thing. I like waking up and playing with ideas. And I love the idea of using writing as a flare.
Here’s my flare for the day. I’m renaming my blog, “Morning Musings” as well. If any of the ideas that currently captivate me delight you as well, please let me know. Consider it an act of mercy for both me and the people who sit across from me when I say, “So…how about potatoes, eh?”
