Petites Pensées Lundi

A new addition to TSLL's regular postings, available to all readers, non and Basic and TOP Tier members. Enjoy the Petites Pensées Lundi post each and every Monday as you begin the week, a shorter post replacing the Monday Motivational post, as I dive into completing TSLL's 4th book. This post, sharing thoughts to ponder, or as I am choosing to title them, Petites Pensées, 'small thoughts', while not small in depth of content, but rather small in length - no more than 1-3 paragraphs, with an introduction sharing from where the post was written or conceptualized wherever in the world I might find myself to offer a glimpse into one of the numerous and unique ways to live a life of contentment. 

“It’s never about the big moment. The fact that all of [your life] played out the way it has . . . The moment you transcend everything that happened . . . [the big moment] is the thing you’ve been preparing for your whole life. Every time you’ve been knocked down, every time you’ve been told no, every single conflict, everything that has ever happened to you has prepared you for it and it would not be showing up if you weren’t ready.”  —Oprah Winfrey, September 10, 2024

The Setting:

• Lieu: (place of idea) multiple: as captured in these photos, Norman accidentally wandering onto the playground boat while on our morning walk in a favorite Bend park – an unwanted destination but then curiosity ensued rather than doubt; (writing) Saturday evening, snuggled on the sofa at Le Papillon, two sleeping pups nearby, the golden evening light of the October sun drifting to the horizon dusting the tops of the pillows and dining chairs with its sunlight; spying birds flying to and from the bird bath.
• Thé: Mariage Frères Darjeeling Master
• Des sons: peaceful silence

Endless rejections, or what feels endless even if in actuality it has just been two, but two (or three or four, you get the idea) long worked and sacrificed for, invested in, attempts involving effort and vulnerability not otherwise given had you not felt in your being would have been well-suited to your strengths and capabilities.  

Painful disappointments and discouragements arriving in a myriad of ways whether from family upheaval, financial struggles or prejudicial treatment dismissive without awareness to their biases. 

Or maybe, the hiccups were instead gaping holes of grief, loss of loved ones of any stripe, individuals or companions whose presence is now absent but forever held in your heart. 

Whichever unwanted experience or experiences we’ve had, we need not compare to another’s because when it happens in our life it shakes us, prompting us to question or doubt whatever ideas or hopes we may have held. However, what we have in common is the guarantee that we will run up against unwanted moments along our life journey if loving and living is our modus operandi. And I wholeheartedly encourage you to make it so. 

Here are two truths to understand, and in knowing them, they will continue to help us move forward rather than stop (or regress) along the winding journey of our life: the first, that unwanted events will take place even if we put our whole heart into the equation; and the second, that each pain or hiccup is giving us something that when we see it to be of value to strengthen us in some way even if we don’t understand why at the time of its occurrence, then we have opened up the road, our unique pathway, that wants to lead us to that moment we were made for uniquely. 

James Earl Jones, who will forever be remembered for his acting prowess and recognizable solely by his basso profondo voice, was born with a stutter. He refused to speak from first grade to freshman year, but then he chose to see the challenge as an opportunity and look at where his voice took him. 

We will never know where our life is leading when we choose to forge through the metaphorical forest of brambles and landslides, floods and wildfires that decorate our life journey, but if we don’t choose to forge ahead, and it is a choice, we will never know what moment hopes that we do eventually show up having traversed through the hiccups and unwanted moments and chapters. Because it will never be entirely about us when we do eventually arrive, but always involve that something that we can uniquely give to a recipient – be it one person or the world, so that they will benefit greatly, and so too will you in reaching your purpose, and fulfilling your dharma.  

~Note: admittedly, this week’s post is a bit longer than 1-3 paragraphs. Wishing you a wonderful start to the new week. 😌

Explore Petites Pensées Lundi from the Archives

The Quiet Awareness of Embodying Quiet Confidence

Choose to Be the Writer of Your Life Story

How Curiosity Overrides Worry and Leads to Personal Growth