#Reverb 14: Conduits

We are all lightning rods, conduits for that which the Universe wants born into this world. What energies did you channel this year?

This is one of those prompts that gets filed in the folder marked:  Not Ready for This, Anytime Soon.  However, commitment is not about renegging and #Reverb encourages participants to reflect on what has been over the past year and what may be in the twelve months ahead.  Reflection includes the not so good, the good and the fantastical.  The not so good of this past year is still raw but I am navigating a better path.  I believe in process.  This too will pass.

Energy goes wherever our thoughts and attention are focussed.  Positive events, people and circumstances energise us, recharging our enthusiasm and passion.  Life events, people and circumstances suck our energy reserves and leave us tired and feeling low. I wonder why it is then that our brains are wired to need ten positives to drown the thoughts of the one negative.  The fact that so much energy is expended on one not so good thing we need ten good things to bring us back up to a level playing field ought to put us on alert.

The last twelve months have been focussed on a variety of activities that have lifted my energy reserves to a point where I believe that most things are possible.  All things are possible, but not all things are probable.  In November last year I visited a WordPress blog site I set up four years previously.   I wanted to write and knew we become better at the things we practice.  The blog seemed to satisfy the wanting to write and the learning to write better, so in I dove – with all my energy.  To that point the blog had fewer than thirty posts, and that over a four year period.  Commitment, thy effort was pitiful!  Today, I am counting down to New Year’s eve when this blog will have 365 posts up.  It will serve as a starting point for 2015.  Anyone else have a blog-related countdown to the end of the year?

Because Type A personalities are never content with one new commitment for the year,  I took up regular journaling and when I came to the end of the second journal, I dove into digital journaling.   While there has been a flurry of activity around writing I feel a fraud to call it channelled energy, in the spiritual sense.  However we think of it, the energy  was being focussed very specifically at writing.  Before this year my endeavours were like a light bulb that diffuses its glow.  Actually, they were more like a candle flame that sputtered and eventually snuffed itself out.  This year I’ve focussed my energy like a laser beam, totally directed towards becoming a better writer, blogger and journal keeper (recorder of life).

For many, growing up is a painfully slow process.  So slow for me in fact that it wasn’t until quite late in life I decided to chase a dream I’d harboured since a young girl.  And chase it I did;  it was a life altering event.  Now I work in the community sector with a passion and enthusiasm I never thought possible.  Each day I am energised as I spend time supporting parents who struggle with mental health, poor mental health, substance dependence and domestic violence; parents who have child protection services in their lives; and others who have had their children removed from their care.

My energy is channelled in building hope,  finding their strengths and helping them plan a better life.  There fantastical opportunities to advocate on behalf of these parents and raise awareness of the inconsistencies within the system.  I pour a lot of energy into issues of social justice: access to services, employment, opportunity, and resources as well as trying to break down the barriers of discrimination and stigma that are perpetuated by those who are ignorant of the struggles of mental illness and substance dependence, or those who have experienced domestic violence.

Each day my eyes open is a gift.  Another opportunity to show compassion, exhibit empathy and pick up the baton on behalf of vulnerable others.  This post would be incomplete without mentioning the elements in my life that replenish the expended energies.

• When my energy cup is empty God carries me the rest of the way
• His faithfulness sustains me

• Quiet times with friends over a coffee and chatting

• Adventures away from home; as well as

• Adventures at home (there’ve been a few)

• Laughter and being silly (wine optional)

Being wonderful on good days is easy.  It’s pushing through the tough times that grow us.

Do you think St Francis lived this prayer or, like me, did he aspire to practice these things?  How amazing would it be if at this point in 2015 we were able to say that this prayer had become a reality.  That I was able to channel this energy towards others.  Ok, I’m human and seem to spend more time picking myself up than I care to admit, but I wonder how many lives would be changed if I were able to channel these positives.