Archive for January, 2012
Budget
My 1951 Websters ( unabridged addition) states that the origin of budget means a bag or a pouch. My Merriam-Webster (11th addition) calls bouge, a leather bag.
Of the various definitions from both above-mentioned resources, I chose the following: a ‘Plan of affairs’ and ‘…an amount available for a particular use’. Additionally, I added ‘energy budget’ to create a working definition to help guide me through some upcoming stellar events; a family wedding; a family re-union; and a few family mile-stone birthdays.
I fantasized briefly about having more than adequate monies, time and energy available so I could just sail through all these events with a kind of joyful abandon. Then BOOM, reality blows my fantasy away. I need a budget. Relishing having unlimited funds to spend on travel, dress, decorations, gifts, catering, hired help and various other accoutrement evaporated into thin air. The full scope of the challenge before me began to take root in my psyche, my body and my purse. How many ways can I stretch a couple thousand dollars to do a ten-thousand dollar job?
I will have a budget. I will comparison shop; I will invite good planing; I will accept my limitations; I will invite team-work; I will have a plan of affairs; I will allocate time, energy and funds befitting each event; and I will pace myself to the best of my ability. Most importantly, I will focus with joyful abandon on how rich I truly am!
Passion
When beginning a new year, a new cycle, passion is activated, engaged. We are energized and enthusiastic. Stepping beyond the passion that fuels our intimate relationships and looking deeply within for the passions that feed our souls, what do we find?
For some the answer is evident in active ongoing involvement with creative expression, athletic activity, causes, and, commitments to desires of the heart that bring deep satisfaction. For others the road is less clear.
I believe there are some key components to passionate expression of the soul. Essential to successfully living your passion are belief or faith, trust, commitment, desire, confidence, willingness including the willingness to be wrong, to lose, to stand up to ridicule, to step out of your comfort zone, to try new things, to accept criticism as well as accolades, to work with others or to work alone, to grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
As we enter 2012 and the labor pains birthing a new age become more powerful and more intense the necessity is greater than ever for each of us to find and to persue our passions.
Belong
As I read the following quote by Irene Fernandez from her acceptance speech at the Right Livelihood Awards in 2005, I was very moved to reflect on the bigger perspective, the bigger responsibility of being a citizen/inhabitant of our beautiful Earth.
“We belong to one race, the human race and we have only one earth. This solidarity of people must ensure that we put people and the planet before profits. The earth we are given is not just for us but also for those who come after us. They need tomorrow and that rests on us today.”
Belonging at this fundamental level of being, inspires me to look at my consumer behavior with a more critical eye. It inspires me to do even just one thing that can contribute to keeping our planet habitable and bountiful for our descendents. Please, won’t you join me.
Occupy
Our thought processes come with the development of language. The English language, in particular, is not static; it continues to grow, to change, to develop. ‘Words of the Year’ reflect major themes, conditions, roles, and changes in our society at large over a given period. Occupy, chosen the Word of the Year for 2011 by the American Dialect Society, is a good example of this process. Pragmatic is the Word of the Year for 2011 chosen by the folks at Merriam-Webster.
Whatever your thoughts and feelings are about the Occupy Movement, it is a historical event of global proportions. The Merriam-Webster definition of occupy is “…to engage the attention or energies of….” To be pragmatic is to “…be down-to-earth, realistic….”
On a personal note as we begin 2012, I invite you to bring occupy pragmatically into your daily activity. Find a cause, a circumstance, a situation wherein you can engage the attention or energy of yourself and create a down-to-earth, realistic goal for personal change in your life.
T
Resolute
This word of the week blossomed in my mind refusing to be passed over, calling my consciousness to its timeliness. To be resolute is to be ‘…firmly determined in purpose’. Our seasonal ritual of making resolutions always includes this firm determination to change…to change ourselves or our situation in some fundamental way; to improve ourselves. ‘True’, ‘loyal’, and ‘faith’ are all synonyms for resolute; and resolution is an action word.
I received a very insightful e-mail regarding the focus of this traditional passage. Rather than direct our steadfast determination to change a pattern, behavior, habit, or situation that we consider negative, why not shift the focus to the positive? I invite you to examine the possibilities of exploring, expanding, creating, discovering and using more of your innate potential. And be resolute!