Category: authentic iving

It’s the Perfect Time to Jump

You-cannot-always-waitI don’t believe there’s a perfect time to do anything that’s challenging. I think life requires creativity; the ability to respond from your heart to an ever-changing set of circumstances, as you, yourself are also changing, evolving, learning. Another way of saying it, is that it’s always the perfect time.

We get caught up thinking we’ll do “it”, whatever it may be– forgiving someone, mending a fence, following our hearts, having a painful conversation, making a big but necessary change–when the “time is right.” It’s easy to take it for granted that you’ll wake up tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. And I surely hope you do. I hope you wake up for many, many more days. But life doesn’t have a “rollover” plan. You don’t get to store the time you may have wasted and use it in the future. And your contract can be revoked at any time, without notice.

Recognizing the absurd, amazing, exhilarating, painful, joyful, temporary nature of our existence will either shut a person down or open them up. The ride is the ride, how you take it is up to you. Doubt is paralyzing. If life is a creative process, doubt is the thing that will stop you in your tracks. Doubt about whether you’re enough, whether you have something worthwhile to say, to offer. You are here, and you have this amazing heart. Trust that. Speak from that. Shine it everywhere for as long as you’ve got, because you’re as much a part of this ride as anyone, you have just as much beauty to share.

Get busy uncovering anything blocking you from that connection to your joy, your purpose, those things that will light you up and set you on fire. Because I really think you may as well blaze your way through this world, doing anything and everything you can to spread some love and some light. You have a limitless amount of that stuff within you, and sharing it is the joy in life. Now is the perfect time. Jump. Sending you love, as I always am, Ally Hamilton

Check Your Table of Contents!

In-the-Book-of-Life-theI bet if I’d met you when we were four or five years old and we hung out together for the day, no one would have had to tell us what to do to have fun. By and large, children know what lights them up, feeds their souls, and brings them joy. I have a six year old and a three year old, and believe me, I do not need to tell them what feels like a yes for them, or what feels like a no.

We’re taught that happiness lies in external stuff, that if you have questions, doubts, fears, pain, you should seek comfort and answers from the world around you. But it’s the world within you that holds the key to your peace. You were born with that, it lives inside you.

A lot of the work on the path to healing has to do with simply remembering who you are and realizing what you already know. You may have covered that stuff over with ideas and opinions, judgments and “shoulds.” It’s possible life has hardened you rather than softened you. Layers of rage, resentment, grief and fear are painful to sort through and sit with, but that’s the path to your peace, and you can get there if you’re willing to dig for awhile. Your digging may include tears, sweat, loneliness and a lot of discomfort, but the effort is worth your while. Because once you find that connection to your yes, you’ll have both the inspiration and the hard-earned wisdom to follow it.

Sending you so much love, a huge hug, and a shovel if you need one. Tissues, too.

Ally Hamilton