It recently struck me how the goals that seemed so vital a number of years ago are no longer quite the same and, in some cases, are no longer relevant at all. Friends are experiencing similar processes and we are assured by adults decades older than us that this kind of trial-and-error is normal, natural even, especially in an individual’s later twenties or early thirties. Yet trying to distill the essence of what you truly need to flourish on a core level is challenging—at least it has been for me.
A number of months ago, my father and I were discussing learning to enjoy the present moment, rather than rushing for an unnamed end result in some nebulous future. He used metaphor, explaining that life happens swimming between the ship and the shore. This image struck deep. Of course we have objectives we work to accomplish, but the majority of our time is spent in the sea, making our way through rough and calm waters into the unknown. So often in the past, I’ve thought something to the effect of, “I just have to achieve this goal because after that, life will really begin,” or “One day I’ll do ____, but can’t until ____ is finished.” But I’m already living and life has long since started. It’s simple and obvious, yet somehow took years to realize.
Perhaps Emily Dickinson best captures the outcome of that conversation with Dad:
Exultation is the going of an inland soul to sea, past the houses—past the headlands—into deep Eternity.
That’s where this website comes in. Notions of Change is a project of discovery—a journey, designed to explore areas of interest, share thoughts, show beauty, and perhaps even make the world a little bit better in the process. Now, not later. And maybe it will help me to crystallize the answers to those varied question marks that periodically crowd themselves inside my heart.
