The Yes Path

For those wanting and ready to embark on an extraordinary new path.

For those who would rather listen than read (or both!) I have recorded this piece for you.

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Hello. If you’re reading this, chances are you are considering saying or perhaps have just said "yes" to embarking on a new path. An extraordinary one. One that none of your friends or neighbors have taken, and perhaps they even look at you askance in that way that tells you - you’re not "quite right."

You know no one who has taken this path, except maybe a character in a book or a movie. An outlier — and a story that always fascinated you. Fascinated everyone. An Academy Award winner. But ... that's just the movies! Who wants to really do it?

You do?

Maybe you’ve already taken the first step. Or maybe you’re standing in the doorway, just on the threshold. You look ahead — it feels open, expansive, filled with adventure and possibility. It also feels scary, unknown, uncharted, dangerous, foolish, self-indulgent, questionable, unreasonable. You look behind you — now that feels known, familiar, safe, predictable. It also feels stuck, dead-ended, flat, purposeless, tiring, wearisome, and unsustainable, despite your best attempts to keep it all going.

Embarking on this path requires contemplation. Counting the cost, as the wise saying goes. Who builds a house without counting the cost first?

And that’s why you’re probably reading this right now.

This is a path where you need to travel alone, but along the path you’ll find many to accompany you. It’s a path of aloneness, and rich connection. To yourself primarily, and with and through others as well.

This path will take you to places so deep and perhaps scary, even painful, you don’t think you’ll survive. And then you look up and see the sliver of sun rising over the ridge across the way and realize that there’s light for yet one more day on this path. And that light is more radiant and magnificent than you've ever seen before.

On this path, you’ll encounter all kinds of characters. Some will prove to be the most faithful, others will tie your shoelaces together and laugh when you trip. Still others will scorn you, demanding an accounting, “Who do you think you are?” All of them are your teachers. All of them are to be revered. Not they themselves, but the lessons that you will learn. Need to learn. That you asked to learn somewhere along the way. Because you wouldn’t be in this crazy position, on this rocky path, with just an old backpack and a faulty compass, if you hadn’t asked for it.

This path is a proving ground for all that you have learned thus far. It's a finishing school, of sorts. A place where the final touches will be adorned (or maybe etched) upon you and within you. You've been prepared for this path. And you place your first footfall upon it for such a time as this. Perfect timing. Not only for yourself, but for those lives that will and already are intersecting yours in ways beyond your own plans and imaginings.

This path is a gift. It gives but it also asks much in return. There is a mutual giving, a relationship between you and the path. Be open to the conversation that wants to emerge between you. Because the path not only leads to the divine within you but IS is the divine within you that has been your birthright from your very first breath.

The Invitation

I invite you to find that first breath again. That breath of infinite possibility and belief that you have a right and great purpose for being here. Just you! Not connected to anyone else! Breathe that birthright breath back in. Let it fill some part of you, some space in you that is craving New Life. Consider this question as you inhale once again, allowing it to rise up within you:

Will you allow the New Life that wants to take seed and grow in you to bear fruit so that it may reseed again… and again?

Perhaps close your eyes, breathe in again and see if you can find …

… Yes.

Will you allow your heart to open just a bit more to embrace the trust you need to do this?

Wait until it is true for you before you say…

…Yes.

And if and when you feel and then hear that one syllable release from your lips, that Yes, ... now let it go. Nothing to figure out. Nothing to plan. Rest now and let the path come to you. Let the signs and characters find you. Let the faith and courage that you will need fill you.

And when you're ready, not too far from the inward "Yes" you just felt and heard yourself say, make your "Yes" visible with an outward sign -- whatever sign is meaningful for you. It could be a conversation with a friend, a statement you write in your journal, a rock you place in your garden to mark this moment. Take some action that you can refer back to as the outward Yes that represents the inner Yes. And in time, most likely in very short time, the next step will gently present itself. And the path will begin to open, in the best, most personal way for you.

So it all begins ... with the first ... Yes.

Welcome to the path. Welcome to the journey!