[jamesn.]

Wow Stephen; what an incredible overview you just shared; like a diamond with it’s many facets; each shimmering from it’s own reflection of a larger whole. One of the things I liked most was how you shared your insights of your own experience of your life as it unfolded; and the processes that led to your relationship of the resulting outlooks of your life now. (The journal pictures were especially revealing and gave a wonderful inside look into your process.)

We all have this potential within us; but do we step into our call to express it? The gifts of this process are enormous if the challenge is accepted; but the Dragon within us sometimes is reluctant to let you pass this threshold. Your insecurities may tell you: “Oh no; it’s too difficult; or it it’s too painful; or I don’t know how or where to start. (There’s all this stuff swirling around in my head and I just don’t know how to put it down on paper!)

Well; I’ll share a few things that have helped me; and others can add any of theirs if they like. Do you have a cell or smartphone with a camera? Go out and take some pictures of things that have meaning to you and write about them. Do you have some old mementos? Go pull them out of the closet or in the places they are tucked away and reminisce about them; and then try to capture something of these experiences. Do you have a piece of music that moves you or is connected to a deep personal experience? Listen to it and scribble a few thoughts and then go back and reflect on it and then try to put something down of why you feel this way. If this is too much at first then reflect for awhile till something you want to say emerges.

One thing I try to do is keep something handy I can write on if an important thought comes to me. (I have piles and piles of little scraps of paper crammed full of little messages to myself. They are everywhere; next to my bed if something wakes me in the night; I have a notebook where they are “semi” organized into separate piles; (each pile in a certain order so I can kind of keep them organized; lol); but the main thing for me is this works for my particular thought process. You must figure out your own way; these are just some things that work for me. My point in all of this is within this process I can navigate my inner world; and Joseph’s insights into this inner realm have been incalculable.

I came to him late in life; late 30’s; so my life trajectory had already reached a certain point where I was in a midlife crisis and not trying to figure out about school or career path; and although for each us our life choices we make may differ; inevitably certain things I think run true for many of us. We grow up into adults; we have dreams and wishes; we have life tragedies; and we must figure out where we our going; and I was at a point of impasse.

If I had heard the term Jungian; I would have had no clue what that meant at first; and indeed for many years afterward the learning curve was very long and arduous; full of all kinds of emotional roadblocks where the road forward seemed impossible to sort through in my life. I was deep in the forest now; but after finding Joseph; he was there all the time saying; “oh yes you can; you can do this – stay with it and just keep going – others have been where you are – you can figure this out just keep reading and studying and listening and you’ll get there.

There were people in this community from back then whom I will be forever grateful to; and during all of that time the funny thing is my idea of “getting there” kept getting farther and farther away from where I thought it was; and then step by step things began falling away; and the more I studied him the more certain pieces of the puzzle began to make sense; kind of like: Dorthey in the Wizard of OZ returning back to where she started – but with a new sense of awareness of my life; or as Joseph might have said: “This is it” right here; right now; this is the gift; appreciate it in all it’s horror and glory!

That doesn’t mean the struggle stops to understand one’s life; and it doesn’t mean that what you do or who you are does or doesn’t matter. But by saying: “Yes” everyday is the challenge; and “writing” about it as Stephen just shared can help you make sense of the part you play in this grand opera of it all; that; and being grateful for the journey.

So what I’m trying to encourage is for others to share some of their thoughts and experiences. We have no idea what lies ahead with this virus; and by sharing some of our common connection I think it’s possible to make some sense of things going forward. So here were some of my thoughts; I hope you’ll share some of yours!