Paths and Directions

Tags

career, choices, direction, path

Hi Kumud – 

  When I was in ninth grade, I filled out a form for the school counseling center with the title that approximated to “What I want to do when I grow up.” It was a one page document and I filled in What I enjoyed doing, What I felt were my gifts, What I wanted to do for recreation, and What I wanted to do for a potential career.

  I recall very little about my replies except that somewhere on the page I wrote the words “Writer”. Now being a writer is a challenging career path and I’m not sure if I would recommend that path for my children. My parents certainly didn’t recommend that path for me. I ended up in Engineering and when it didn’t work out, I transferred to a major called Communications.

  For the past 3 months, I have been looking for a new career job. My recent titles have been Project Assistant, Project Manager, and Business Analyst and I consider myself a very seasoned technical communicator. This past Monday I received a phone call and I was offered a permanent position with the same enterprise that paid me as a contractor a few months ago. The problem was that this was the second job offer within a week and I was already entertaining the other position. I was in the humbling position of having two positions “on the table”.

   The world is full of choices and paths. Late yesterday I wrote the hiring manager at the enterprise where I worked as a contractor last year and turned down her job offer. The hiring manager wished me well on my journey. I enjoyed seeing that word, “journey”. We are all on a journey. I selected a career role with a very visible government agency that I consider perfect. Maybe that journey will be 15 or more years or maybe the journey will have twists and turns before then.

   Each year I am surprised and grateful that my wife and I have enough (income) for food, shelter, and a modest bit of entertainment. While I am not fond of job transitions, it always works out. I am grateful the path led me to an incredible opportunity where I will enjoy growing and contributing in areas very closely aligned with my technical communications ability. I am grateful that I had two offers at one time and in a small way, the universe allowed me to evaluate and confirm “Yes, position A is the perfect fit”. When presented with multiple choices, we are able to confirm that a selection is not arbitrary or just good enough. And that’s what makes me thrive – trusting there is a perfect fit – and it certainly happened this time.

Best,

David Tumbarello

Today listening to Forest Birdsong 2.

David Tumbarello is a technical communicator with over 50 years in the growth industry, with 49 of those years communicative and on two feet. When he is not technically communicating, he enjoys hiking, biking, and writing. Feel free to connect with David on LinkedIn.

Simplicity and the Path

Tags

complexity, grandparents, journey, path, simplicity

Simplicity is such a straightforward concept. When I hear the work, it evokes an immediate feeling of lightness. In my native hindi, the word that perhaps best describes it for me is saadagi (सादगी) – a certain straightforwardness, a “what you see and hear from them is what they truly are” quality in a person. I am often in awe of those who can live their lives in a simple (yet not simplistic) manner.

My maternal grandmother was a great example who modeled simplicity. There was a certain softness, a gentleness, a kindness about her, which belied the very tough life that she had lived up to the point where I truly got to know her as a young person. She may have been a product of her generation, one that was a refugee of partition (of India), and who went very quickly from living a life of luxury to a life of great hardship. But, even during her life of luxury, I am told that she preferred simplicity in her actions and her attitude.

Her simplicity manifested in her language, in her cooking, in her daily practices in the shrine at home and the local temple. A cup of water, a fresh flower, a tulsi (holy basil) leaf, a soft prayer was all she used and needed to express her belief, her devotion and her faith. Her great wisdom was held close to her heart, and she only spoke in metaphors and parables in her native tongue when it was absolutely necessary to impart some deep truth. I can scarcely ever remember raising her voice to anyone, even though us grandkids were often more than a handful on many an occasion in her small home.

I often wondered how one could possibly live their entire lives in the embrace of such simplicity by choice, and yet accomplish so much and be so loved by so many who came in contact with her. Twenty or so years after having met her over a few days on our visit to India, my good friend here in the USA still talks fondly about her grace. Her love was expressed through her simple greeting as soon as you walked through the door. Age may hae bent her frame and caused her hands to shake. But it rarely ever stopped her from asking us, her grandchildren, as soon as we walked into her home – what do you want to eat and drink, as she made her way out the door, clutching her cloth satchel, to the local market. We learnt quickly that ‘nothing to eat’ was not a good answer. For then she would return with a whole smorgasboard of cookies!

Deep down within, we all have probably known people in our lives who have graced us with their simplicity. It is the path that they walk, and one that they walk of a joyful choosing. There was (and is) an effortless grace in their walking, by which their simplicity forms a deep impression on our heart. The lessons that they taught (and teach) us are living examples of what is possible if we were to (occasionally) choose simplicity too.

These lessons of simplicity are particularly relevant in our increasingly attention-scattered lives. Our dust laden paths of complex interactions and multiplicity of engagements tend to crowd out our innate propensity to simplicity. Oh no. What a complex sentence, yes?! The path to complexity is motivated by societal ‘progress’ and ‘evolution’, and yet it often weighs on our own ‘spiritual’ progress. How much more complexity do we need in our tools, methods and practices, to create simple, inner joy within us? To create better awareness? To connect with our soul consciousness? Is our simple commitment to a focus on the heart not enough?

Maybe we can return to, rediscover, revisit the gift of simplicity. It will take some effort to take the first few steps, to wean us away from the inertia of the walking the ego’s self-created path of complexity. What will determine whether we take that step to simplicity? Therein lies a decision. As @JanetNestor said in her beautiful GLOW webinar for #heartfulness this morning – will we decide to “Just Be” and rediscover the simple beauty of our “Spark of Life”?

Before I close, I say namaste to Grandma. Thank you for all those fresh treats that you bought for us from the stores at every visit. And yet, the ones I remember best are the simple ones that were cooked by your shaking hands, moved by your loving heart, straight from your kitchen. I have truly lived your simplicity because I ate so many of those brown-sugar-and-clarified-butter-encrusted flat-breads that came straight off of your cast-iron griddle.

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Please join us for our weekly gathering of the #SpiritChat community on twitter – Sunday, August 12 at 9amET USA / 630pm IST India. We will chat about simplicity and its role, its relevance in our lives. Namaste.

Simplicity on the Path (Rocky River Reservation, Cleveland OH)

Equanimity and Simplicity on the Path

Tags

equanimity, journey, path, simplicity, spirit, spiritchat

We kicked off our second year of weekly discussions in SpiritChat in the month of August as we discussed the spirit of equanimity – what it means to us, how we practice it, the connection between equanimity and inner peace, and more. One thread that emerged from this discussion was that the continual development of equanimity is an important part of spiritual progress, and goes beyond mental calmness. The takeaway (reflection) question from this week was:

What practical steps can we take to strengthen our equanimity in the coming week?

The second topic for August was the simplicity and the spirit. This topic addressed the importance of us developing an attitude of voluntary simplicity and an exploration of how that influences our spiritual growth. The major thread that emerged from this discussion was that voluntary simplicity requires concrete action, and that simple action steps can put us on the path towards greater simplicity. Our takeaway question from this discussion was:

What action steps will you take towards greater simplicity in the future?

The third Sunday of August was a discussion about our spiritual journey, our spiritual path in life. This topic brought out some interesting perspectives in that some folks believed that the path emerges as we move forward, while others stated that a firm foundation and guidelines which define the path are necessary before we undertake the journey. What do you think? Here was the takeaway question from this topic:

What area of your spiritual journey needs the most work? How will you work it?

So, that brings us to the final Sunday in August – as has become our tradition, the final Sunday of the month is when we look back at the month’s discussions, weave them together, and lay the ground-work to look forward to the month to come. Is there a connection between equanimity, simplicity and the spiritual journey we all are undertaking? Well, of course there is! But what are the specifics of this connection? What can we learn from it and how can this connection help us as we move forward on the journey?

I invite you to join us in SpiritChat on Sunday, August 26th at 9am ET / 1pm GMT / 2pm UK / 6:30pm IST to reflect on the month of August and plan for the month of September.

May our journeys be peaceful as we embrace equanimity and simplicity.

Kumud

P.S. I invite you to send me your questions or add them in the comments below – I would love to include them in future conversations. Thank you!

Update: Here is the – link to the transcript for Sunday Aug 26th chat. The questions (as they evolved during the chat) are listed below:

Ready? Q1. Why is equanimity important to our spiritual life? Or is it? #SpiritChat

Q2. What are some sources that increase/decrease your equanimity? #SpiritChat  

Q3. What is the relationship between equanimity and simplicity? #SpiritChat 

Q4. Did you take any steps towards more simplicity recently? In what way? #SpiritChat 

Q5. How do simplicity and/or equanimity fuel your spiritual journey? #SpiritChat

Q6. Describe your spiritual path in seven words. #SpiritChat 

Q7. What area of your path are you planning to focus on more in September? How? #SpiritChat 

The Journey of the Spirit

Tags

journey, path, spirit, spiritchat, travel

Summer is always a season when families (and individuals) tend to take some time off to relax, unwind and spend some time taking vacations. Some folks may even travel away from home – within the country or overseas – to explore new lands and destinations and engage in the joy of discovery. It can be an educational experience indeed to encounter new or different cultures with their unique perspective and ways of doing things. Food, clothing, housing, family life, community life – even minor differences between our ways and their ways can be an enriching experience for us.

The journey that our minds and hearts make as we travel, influence our inner core – our spirit – in different ways too. Some of us find inspiration in the mountains, while some may find it near the water. Some may find it in the simple things close to home, some may have to travel tens of thousands of miles to find it. Some may find it in solitude while some may find it amongst crowds of people. 

Whatever the case may be, our travels on the outside perhaps reflect, in some way, the journey that our inner spirit is seeking to make. Our spirit may have found its path, or it may still be in the process of seeking the path. Have you found the path that nourishes your spirit? How do we know when the path that our spirit has chosen is right for us? What recent “sights” have you discovered in your spiritual journey? What “travel tools” does your spirit use or need on its journey? Do you have a “road-map” for your journey with a destination in mind?

Join the #SpiritChat community on Sunday August 19th at our regular time of 9am ET / 2pm UK / 6:30 India as we explore some of these questions and examine our spiritual paths and the journey…

As always, travel well!

Kumud

Update: Transcript for #SpiritChat chat held from 9-10amET Sun Aug 19th. http://bit.ly/sc-tr-0819 . Here are the questions asked during the live chat. Feel free to respond in the comments. Thank you!

Ready? Q1. What does the phrase - to be on a spiritual journey - mean to you? #SpiritChat

Q2. Do we need a specific spiritual path or not? Why or why not? #SpiritChat  

Q3. What specific practices (sign-posts) help you along your journey? In what way? #SpiritChat 

Q4. What is most important fuel for your spirit - knowledge, action or faith? Why? #SpiritChat 

Q5. When you feel you are at a spiritual crossroads, what moves you forward? #SpiritChat

Q6. What insights has your spiritual journey revealed to you recently? #SpiritChat 

Q7. How does community impact your spiritual journey? Or do you walk alone? #SpiritChat 

Final Q8. What area of your spiritual journey needs the most work? How will you work it? #SpiritChat