from Jamie’s post

What do you wish for your future?

Health: Body and mind connection, sanity, very little illness or dis-ease, no dis-ordered eating, activity, flexibility, and strength, longevity, ease, endurance, wellness, wholeness.

Love: Wisdom and compassion, as the foundation of all connection and relationship, self-love and shared love, love as my world view and state of being, my reality and experience and attention and action all centered in love.

image shared by Healing with Art

Sharing my compassionate vision: Through my relationships and writing, being a constant reminder of basic goodness, of our innate wisdom and compassion, of the power and joy available to us in the present moment, of the transformation and acceptance available through gentle, relaxed attention and presence.

Path and Purpose: Yes, I have my own own vision of and ideas about how I want this to look and be. For example, the books I’ve dreamed of writing, light and love manifested, materialized and shared. Or, gathering together groups of women and teaching them, (once I fully learn and embody this for myself), to wholeheartedly live their “one wild and precious life,” to serve and ease suffering. But, essentially my intention and wish is to show up and be open and pay attention, to trust in the direction I’m being guided, called, and to be committed to doing what’s required of me–to fill the Jill shaped hole. To be brave and open-hearted even when I feel afraid and vulnerable, to have faith, to practice.

Balance: Middle path, middle way. Not too tight and not too loose. Relaxed, content, at ease. Rather than getting hooked or attached, letting go and sinking in, again and again.

To live, both in honor of those who’ve been lost and to be remembered: Thich Nhat Hahn said, in response to the tsunami in Japan:

An event such as this reminds us of the impermanent nature of our lives. It helps us remember that what’s most important is to love each other, to be there for each other, and to treasure each moment we have that we are alive. This is the best that we can do for those who have died: we can live in such a way that they continue beautifully, in us.

I want to live in this way. I also wish for my future that I will live in a way that I will be remembered in the way John O’Donohue describes in his poem On The Death Of The Beloved:

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

…

May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love

(c) John O’Donohue. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://www.johnodonohue.com

So maybe that’s my central wish for my future, to live in such a way that people will remember me in this way. To truly live my one wild and precious life, to embody this moment, manifest my basic goodness, fill the Jill shaped hole. To enter each day with a generous heart. To serve the call of courage and love.