1st Feb 2024 - Keeping Promises
How easy is it to keep a promise to someone else versus to ourselves? For the last couple of weeks, I have been itching to do some art but with an overwhelming to-do list it has been sidelined again and again. But also it has been side-lined for other people's priorities.
At the weekend I felt frustration bubbling away, annoyance showing up as yet another demand on my time manifested and my planned weekend art session did not happen. It was easy to blame others, life, etc but I realised that if I wanted this to happen I was going to have to find a make it happen.
I ended up booking a timeslot in my diary – sorry/not sorry but that would have meant you could not book a client appointment! This was a booking with myself for art.
I couldn’t wait then surprise along came a situation and that was a timeslot that I could use, it made the most sense. It was tempting to give up on my promise to myself to do art – to choose the option that made sense logically.
But broken promises to ourselves are a way of saying that we are somehow less important so I sat with the discomfort and fear, witnessed the feelings but didn’t not jump into them.
Slowly the feelings began to become less intense to the point where I chose to suggest an alternative time and even though I thought it wouldn’t work it was fine and I got to keep my promise to myself..
My art is a work in progress just as keeping promises to myself are too.
3rd February 2024 - Finding beauty in the darkness
We went on a family walk today, the light was starting to fade but my partner wanted to show us an old barn that had barn owl and bat boxes and of course, twilight was the perfect time. We trailed across muddy fields to the old barn. The barn itself was dilapidated, graffiti adorned the walls – the place looked a little scary in the fading light – a place of made from ghostly stories. But the place transformed with a little light from our torches to light the way. The light pushed back the darkness and allowed us to explore, yes the dark and shadows still lingered at the edge but the pool of light allowed us the catch glimpses of magic – the waning light catching the edges of aging wooden beams and the zing of colourful paint - maybe not everyone's definition of beauty but can define your own beauty. So yes, we found some beauty in the graffiti and the skeletal structure it just took a little bit of guiding light.
This is sometimes this is how life is…and how coaching can be. When something looks scary with the support of a little guiding light we can find a way to explore the darkness and maybe even find a beautiful resolution to the challenge.
So here to touches of light in the darkness moments!