Keep Climbing

Aligning intentions with actions in troubled times

“What you seek is seeking you.” The beloved Sufi scholar and poet Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) penned these words nearly eight hundred years ago. I find great peace as I contemplate their meaning. To me, they speak of looking inward. Clarifying what is of utmost importance to me helps me focus my mind and sharpen my intention. My dreams for a bright future for myself, my country, and the world take center stage. Less important things fade away. It’s like I’m using the setting on Zoom, which blurs the background.

Remaining hopeful in times of trouble can seem like whistling into the wind, wishful thinking, or just plain foolish. There is often an unspoken sense that, unless one adopts a doubtful attitude and proceeds with caution, there is a substantial risk of disappointment when dreams don’t come true. Some of us made wish lists before Christmas, only to face the harsh reality that neither Santa nor our parents would deliver the goods on Christmas morning. We grew up, learned about economic limitations, and simply accepted that we’d been expecting too much. Santa may be a fat man, but there was some belt tightening somewhere along the way. Keeping dreams small seemed like the prudent move.

Let me explain why that model is flawed. Coming into contact with deep, positive intentions is not the same as making a list and checking it twice. It’s not about asking, asking, asking. It’s about knowing that there are vast numbers of others who seek the same intangible joys. Better than that, even, is the understanding that all who seek also deliver. It is the responsibility of the seeker to contribute, to add to the communal basket of positive intentions. I recently read that the difference between wishful thinking and hope is that hope has energy behind it. Hope includes a promise to put one’s back into the struggle.

When adversity strikes, there is a need to reframe the vision. Acceptance doesn’t mean giving up or giving in. Point of view can change, expand, and take in the actual surroundings. I’m a Capricorn, that stubborn, climbing goat. Sometimes, I choose the wrong path up the side of a mountain. Sometimes, it’s the wrong mountain. I can correct my course and climb with more wisdom.

Many of us worry about the direction our nation and our world are heading. It feels like we’ve caused so much collective damage to one another and to the environment. How is there room for hope? I think that the medicine to counteract overwhelm lies in small, everyday actions. Remembering positive intentions, looking around, sharing a smile or paying a compliment. The universe receives the positive intention, regardless of the response received in the moment.

Impermanent joy, impermanent sorrow. In the overall scheme of things, both fade away as we remember to look inward and put energy into what is most important. Simple, but not easy. I’ll try to do it, regardless. Care to join me?