Inbetween Intention and Action

To continue my study on intention, it has occurred to me that motivation is a next area to be looked at. One of my brothers, who shall remain nameless, has told me that I think too much. I kind of, sort of, disagree.  I do think a lot and try to make things fit a certain picture or process. This topic of intention is ripe for busy thinking. 

Saturday opened with sunshine and a day with little schedule - none important to the turning of the earth. Plans for the day included, besides my usual routine in the morning, having a friend in for coffee and then going for a drive outside Victoria to a market for local vegetables. We checked their garden center, tomatoes plants won’t be in until Tuesday, and took a very long scenic route through the countryside to return to Victoria. I took a wrong turn, but on this very pretty day, with no pressing time constraints we just drove past farms and spring blossoms, horses, lambs and people cycling. Our motivation for going out of the city to the market was merely to see what was there. The wandering drive home was an added bonus. 

Returning to Victoria, Margaret took her vegetables home and I got ready to go to Aquafit.  Once there I realized that I had my times mixed up and had missed the class. Not to worry. I donned my bathing suit and did a half hour of the usual exercises on my own in an almost empty pool. My motivation to continue with exercises? My intention to keep my body healthy and strong. This intention has lasted for the better part of my life. Participation in yoga, walking and most recently Aquafit has maintained my physical, mental and emotional health. (It also allows me a more varied and delicious diet!) As I am participating in my activities, my curiousity for how I am able to expand my limits is satisfied with each step taken, puzzled over and enjoyed.

Motivation does not have to be a grand burst of longterm and sustained energy.  If that was necessary, my dishes would never get done! Motivation seems merely to be the spark that encourages activity whether a drive in the country, accepting a change in plans or working on a long held dream.

“The heights charm is, but the steps do not; with 

the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Intentional Action

This next bit of study on intention is about the action that grows and realizes a dream, that grows and manifests a goal, that expresses the energy of intention. Action means participation, hands on development of a project, building pieces of a dream. Kind of like building a tractor or combine from a Meccano set, if some are old enough to remember Meccano sets. (Meccano sets are still on the market!) Or for the younger crowd, Lego.

While intention comes from a secret place in the heart and from thinking about ‘what if’, and ‘I want to’, action comes from the executive, the mind’s chairman of the board who directs motor movements, delegating tasks or ordering coffee - or tea, or putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard.

One would think that because many are doers of deeds that action wouldn’t be a problem. However,the action that needs to accompany an intention lit dream is self directed. In fact, each of us are the chairman of the board, prepared to hire and fire at will - and go for lunch whenever the urge arises. Self directed with no critical issue or need attached to it, only a dream and a ‘want to’. No policy or procedure, law, regulations or guidelines. No paycheque attached to the quality or quantity of work. Only personal judgment and an individual heartfelt need to create, to write, to paint, to express what is nesting in heart and soul.

So, it’s onward and upward. Setting intention, outlining actions for each day and moving forward. Structure and function is individual and tailored to home and hearth. As long as the dream, the goal and the plan, shaped by intention and driven home by action, are present, personal success just may be acheived. What that personal success looks like is also individual.

These are ordinary words and big ideas that can be realized in small steps or large.

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, 

don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

~ Confucius

Intention Holds It All Together

Long ago, there was a dream. How long ago was it?  I’m really not certain. Leaping ahead in that moment of long ago, an attempt was made to make the dream materialize. And then there was lack. Lack of belief, of knowledge, of ‘stick to-it-iveness’. Together they derailed the dream where it lay fallow and became overgrown with the stuff of life. Intention had yet to be found.

Unearthed after at least thirty years, the dream that had lain fallow morphed crookedly into an uncertain goal. Leaping ahead in that moment, words were penned on paper, on computer and flew about in the writer’s head. And still there was lack, but not as much. Lack of belief was unsteadily bolstered by stubbornness. Lack of knowledge was bolstered by experience and believing in direction, ‘stick-to-it-iveness’ still not very sticky. Intention, found, had not yet been examined and grew moldy and overgrown with the stuff of life.

Still turning over the soil and planting words on pages and electronic gadgets, the dream had been turned into a goal. Leaping ahead once more into that moment, the goal was accompanied by a loose plan to just move forward one step at a time, one word at a time, one page at a time. Experience a bit more experienced, knowledge a bit more knowledgeable, belief more believable and ‘stick-to-it-iveness’ gaining in stickyness. Intention was taken out, examined and set up on a shelf in open view.

Twenty years later  ~  phew!!  This has been a much longer process than I thought! And so very much more fascinating! But to continue, still keeping at it. Not as a task that must be done, but part of daily life, supported and encouraged by friends, family and professionals. A very enjoyable, freeing and, somedays, saving part of life. Although lack still hovers in the background, experience, belief in the dream, the goal, the planning are held together by intention. Each time they fall apart, the joints loosen or even hint at threat to fall apart, intention becomes the glue or screw to hold them together again. (Lack of belief in oneself or in the process will tear anything apart.)

Has the goal been reached yet? Not the original one, but it is in better focus. The daily practice of private journaling about the mundane or philosophical, or just plain whining, working on the original goal and of blogging about this or that, in muse or in poetry, book review or opinion, and maybe an essay or rant from time to time. The shared reading of my daily blog wanderings is an added bonus that warms my heart. 

“Choose your intention carefully and then

practice holding your consciousness to it,

so it becomes the guiding light in your life.”

~ John Roger

Intention vs Procrastination

Intention is ~
Thoughtful design
Direction mapped with awareness.
Procrastination
Little, if any, thought for design!
Direction unmapped and unaware.

“If it weren’t for the last minute,

nothing would get done.”

~ Rita Mae Brown

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a story rich in philosophy, humour and cultural discussion. Or is it just a story? 

Madame Renee Michel, the fify year old concierge at 7 Rue de Grenelle, with a cat named Leo (named after Leo Tolstoy). 

Paloma Josse, a 12 year old girl, youngest daughter of one of the several families at 7 Rue de Grenelle. 

7 Rue de Grenelle, a microcosm of class expectations, daily life and individual ways of ‘hiding’ in plain sight. 

Madame Michel, who believes she is ugly and knows that she is intelligent, has spent her life maintaining what she believed to be the proper place for a concierge. This involved hiding her intelligence and being properly subordinate. She has little social life outside of tea with Manuela, a Portuguese cleaner for the tenants.

Paloma Josse, who does not feel heard or cared about, prefers being alone. While in ‘hiding’, as her maman calls it, she thinks the philosophical thoughts of a 12 year old about life, death, and the intellectual short comings of her family. She keeps a diary of these 'profound' thoughts and seems to have little social life outside of attending school.

A cultured Japanese businessman, Kakuro Ozu, moves into 7 Rue de Grenelle and coaxes both Madame Michel and Paloma out of their carefully constructed shelters.

Both Madame Michel and Paloma, had intentions set for their lives from the beginning of the book. Kakuro Ozu befriends them both. How the friendships grew past class lines made The Elegance of the Hedgehog a delightful, intriguing read.

Challenge to Serenity

Good evening all,
To say that I woke with intention this morning would be a lie. I did wake up and proceeded with my morning rituals. Coffee was top of the list (almost). Reading my detective mystery by the fire with slippers and housecoat the next. As I slowly came into the morning, my intention for the day was only serenity, calm and two specific activities. My Monday morning walking group and in the afternoon, my Aquafit class. After a long four work days, with details stuffed and filed appropriately, I have been left with dregs of exhaustion that beg a lovely long set of days off.

Well, that kind of went a little bit sideways. I did go walking with the group this morning, but after coffee, wimped out for the walk back to my car. A ride from the coffee shop back to my car was much more in keeping with my flagging energy. Then, Aquafit. Always a lovely time to look forward too. Good workout in cool water in pleasant company. Well, not today. The workout was still good - if not interrupted. The water was cool. The company was pleasant - for the most part. The details have been discussed ad nauseum. Suffice it to say: children with a very assertive parent, spring break for said children, pool invaded, words heatedly exchanged.........

Part of my intention for today was to have as much calm and quiet as possible. When intention and needed actions conflict with situations beyond one’s control there is only one quotation I can use for this post:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

The courage to change the things that I can.

And the wisdom to know the difference.”

~ Reinhold Niebuhr 

(adapted from the original)

In the Distance

Texas Hills Winery 2005

In the distance,
there was a horizon.
A trip to take
A road to travel

Intention? ~ just to travel
to see what there was to see
to meet people and visit
to learn and love and wander
nothing grand or earth shattering
merely to share the road, a meal or an evening
with new friends and old.

And in the distance,
there is a horizon.
A trip to take,
A road to travel.....

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

~ J.R.R.Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring