I acknowledge that I haven’t stayed consistent with becoming an advice insight column. I decided I still wanted to write and share, even during weeks when I don’t receive questions (submit via sudwinks@gmail.com). I also (very gradually) continue to see new subscribers joining here. Welcome if you are new. I started taking questions at the beginning of the year. Check out the list of possible topics in my About section if you are interested in asking me a question to be answered in a future post.
Go where you are.
Surrender like the ocean. It comes to its own end on the shoreline. It is colossal and knows its place.
Remain like the caterpillar. Remain until a new way opens, until the new way is as clear as day.
Grow like the flower. Deepen and ascend, centered where you are planted.
Fly like the butterfly. The new way, clear as day, reveals the wings on your back. They are not a new cocoon to wrap around you. They open, reveal you, and take you to new places.
Shine like the sun and the moon. Illuminate the world without trying. Keep remembering, until you are relentlessly you, every day, every night. One day, you are always there, and you always shine. There is no other way.
See like the bird. See everything. When you do, sing a song. It’s infinitely more resounding than an explanation.
Rule like the air. Give life to everything without ever being seen.
Rest like the willow tree. The ones who need you most will come to where you are. Even then, you’ll find you need them too.
Transcend like water, which doesn’t fear death. It boils, evaporates, pools in the sky, pools on the ground, hardens with frost, and melts with the return of the sun.
Go like the strawberry, who starts as a seed, rises through the dirt, and wears many leaves until the fruit is born. The fruit is chosen for the highest, delectable purpose. No matter if the purpose asks it to be whole, chopped, pureed, baked, or frozen, it knows it won’t be destroyed. The flavor will still be strawberry.
Go where you are.
Linked song/lyrics that play at the end of voiceover:
It picks me up, puts me down
It chews me up, spits me out
Picks me up, puts me downBut I hear the music
I feel the beat
And for a moment
When I'm dancing, I am freeI hear the music
I feel the beat
And for a moment
When I'm dancing, I am free, I am freeOoh, ooh
Is this how it is?
Is this how it's always been?
To exist in the face of suffering and death
And somehow still keep singing
Oh like Christ up on a cross
Who died for us? Who died for what?
Oh, don't you wanna call it off?
But there's nothing else that I know how to do
But to open up my arms and give it all to you'Cause I hear the music, I feel the beat
And for a moment, when I'm dancing
I am free, I am free
I am free, I am free