I took time for a short reprieve as the seasons changed. Then it was time to try one more time to work on a few goals. 

My clock said to keep going and yet I knew that the clock ticking was not the thing to pay attention to this go around. 

There was a part of me that thought it might be perceived as slipping if I didn’t push. 

Then I remembered that this was the time to listen to my own inner talk. 

Sometimes when I keep going it does mean to pause at regular times. 

A pause could be when the energy comes for the final push. 

This quote from Thomas Edison was one for me to think about during that time. 

               The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

There we go! 

Success can come when we try one more time.

Success can come when we try one more time. 

What I tried during this pause included two things. 

Keeping it with the pure steps is what helped me do something again. 

Restarting is the main thing so here we go! 

Where I am in the season includes bundling up with more layers. 

I am currently wearing wool socks, jeans, a button up shirt and then a heavy sweatshirt. 

Of course, I feel like I could climb the mountains I love with the waterproof shoes that pull it all together. 

That would mean adding a warm, heavy coat which I also have within arm’s length. 

Knowing what I need and want to talk with others about in the present moment is the first thing that I’d start with. 

Let’s think about that for this minute we have here. 

What do you want to share with others? 

If you could make a comment to someone about life, would it be the same as how I started with how I like to stay warm?

That’s my need during this change of season.

Perhaps you would begin another way if you were in person. 

I know I’d have other comments and thoughts to toss back and forth with you if we were sitting next to each other. 

Gather your chatting side of life and keep it going. 

There could be memories, you own quotes to share and goals you have that may come into a conversation. 

What to try one more time about.

The ways I’ve thought about what to try one more time about what to say with others has reigned supreme. 

You may have guessed that this is not my first time thinking about communication and following the possibilities of what this could lead to for others. 

Then there is this second part. 

It may be the end of the year and yet it doesn’t mean I need to stop with any goal I have. 

I have considered this from the upside, underside and the downside of how it could look. 

What if this was the time of year that I actually gently geared up? 

Now that may sound counter intuitive so hear me out. 

Part of my reprieve was to gather some energy for this. 

To try one more time and follow up on some steps.

To try one more time and follow up on some steps. The timeline may have passed from an original goal and yet energy could be found again. 

Gearing up is what I have done before when getting close to a finish line. 

In fact, it may be how I know how to do it now. 

Earlier this year I relearned this as I saw planes lifting and growing from one step to another. 

A step at a time is how it’s been from the beginning. 

It’s how it is now. 

Perhaps it would be taking one step in front of the other like you see here. 

I imagined how it can be again as I tried one more time. 

These two things have come over time. 

Staying with the pure things to say about what there is to want and chat about that, along with continually going for my goals. 

Now, what has come to you?

There are no timelines on these.

Let’s take a reprieve when needed and then continue together, my friends. 

There are a few weeks left in the year, and I find myself ready to start at the beginning. 

This may surprise you even as I say it.

Yet let’s go into this realm together as I share how it came to be for me. 

Every day can bring a chance to look at it in a few steps.

Recently I was reminded of it as I looked at a place on this path. 

The wooden boardwalk was discovered after going through a gate, walking on grass then turning a bend in a road to find the first steps opening up. 

There were some open spaces between boards at times and then a sudden moment when the trees provided shade. 

Starting at the very beginning is why I came.

This is when I remembered that starting at the very beginning is why I came to the next open space to pause and be still. 

While I loved being in the shade, being on the open boardwalk is where I truly felt my beginnings coming back to me. 

Days of walking along with others came back and sat with my starting point again. 

Take a look at the small open spaces and imagine filling them in with a needle pulling thread. 

Sure, we could add a bright patch of cloth and then a quilt would come together on the boardwalk.

It reminded me of when I was taught how to embroider as a young girl. Pulling a thread through pieces of fabric to practice then creating simple crafts. 

I thought it was fun and something to do with friends and a few in my family. 

Starting at the beginning was the key.

Starting at the beginning was the key, my friends. 

First, get the thread through the needle. 

Yes, to every success in that step! 

Next was to follow the design and stay on track to complete the project.

What I then realized is that the wood itself had known how to create a quilt on its own. 

Look ahead and you can see that there are colors already sewn in with gray, brown, white and dark borders. 

If we can also pay attention to the edges, we will see that even the tall grasses have provided a new texture and more rich colors. 

Starting at the beginning on the day is how I saw all of this.

Starting at the beginning on this day is how I saw all of this and got ready for what came next. 

As the path opened up to provide a space to be still, I was able to recall one more time and the people who were there with me. 

Reflect with me about a time the people and stillness had come together for you. 

Here are your 30 seconds to think about that time when starting at the beginning was important.

The silence alone is worthy to be heard every single time. 

Now, let’s go forward together. 

Think about your open space. 

Each beginning with those in my spaces has looked different in the past.

Coming together to share and learn with people who wanted to create similar outcomes.

This could look like being in a group while learning how to be still and looking at what comes next. 

It could also look like being with people who know what my beginning has been, know what my story is now and are able to be with me as we all look into possible places to create and learn. 

Then there is a space when I listen, watch and become someone who is there to be alongside others to create with them. 

Perhaps there will be more ways to start coming!

Here’s what I know now. 

Starting at the very beginning could be coming back to what I know, walking along a well-worn path and always looking up to see beautiful designs with the people in your spaces. 

Find what you know and begin again. I’m here for what you imagine!

Each day brings another way to look at things to do. 

It also can be a way to look at who to become or what new questions to ask. 

That is what I bring to you as the day has begun with this look for us all. 

Do you get up in time to see the sun coming over the mountain? 

Perhaps where you are it glides over a river or stretches near open fields. It can come in towers of concrete and deep red canyons. 

I have been to all of these places at times. The sun comes up and wakes me to begin again in all of them.

The mountains are what greet me as I wake up at dawn.

The mountains are what greet me the most so I will describe them as I wake up at dawn with different perspectives. 

You can see that the sun has popped over one ridge in the distance here. 

The beginnings of why I am waking at dawn may be explained with the tree outlined nearer the foreground of this photo. 

Can you tell that I am waiting for the full rays of the morning to reach me? 

If not, I will tell you that I stood in this place for almost thirty minutes to watch and know what the day held for me. 

The sky is also waiting to change from yellow to peach then to light blue until the full deep blue comes later. 

Colors deepened along the mountains as the brightened dawn streams across them. 

This quote may give you a glimpse as to what I am going with, as well. It is from Kahlil Gibran, the author and poet and one of his writings. 

“To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;”

― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

My heart cannot help but leap as if finding wings when I see the dawn each time. 

It’s as if there is hope coming every time. 

I will tell you that I have created this hope in times when the trees didn’t look like they were going to emerge out of the shadows and the mountains felt too far to reach. 

Yet this quote brings a second part that I have sat with at dawn. 

I have sat with other parts of the day to find what could be meant by having a winged heart that gives thanks. 

Think about that with me, if you have the moments here. 

Did you pause? 

Do that now if you can. 

Ok, now let’s breathe through it together. 

Not have time to wake at dawn and wait.

You may have been like me at times and not had time to wake at dawn and wait for the full morning to come to the day. 

Looking for the full blue sky doesn’t always come along like the picture you see here. 

It does seem like an ideal time of life so what happens when it is not this ideal?

Sometimes we wait for another time to come. 

When feelings of this and that can be here at the same time. 

That is the second part that came to me when I found this from Kahlil Gabran. 

Giving thanks for another day of loving is what has given me time to learn and grow into how I look at things.

Where did this begin?

Once upon a time I started writing to a young one in our home. 

The words written were for his eyes when he became grown, and I could share them. 

A red journal is where I began writing to talk about what was happening, the joy, the growing and the adventures. 

Then life changed and I was not sure if this journal was going to be read by that young one. 

Yet, I continued to write for years until suddenly there was an end to the red journal entries. 

There came a time that I changed from talking to that young child to who he was becoming as a young man and who I was becoming. 

When the dawn and shadowed mountains were in the picture together like this. 

It was beautiful, like life. 

It all began to be centered around gratitude for every little thing. 

I became more attentive to a sunrise.

You may have guessed that I became more attentive to a sunrise and what each dawn brought. 

Yes! That was the shift for me. 

Gratitude for the love in our home. 

Gratefulness for the people who came into our realm. 

Being able to look up on the way to a children’s hospital in the early hours while seeing the sun pop over the mountains we both loved to explore. 

Happiness in the moment before the next unknown event came. 

If I had three minutes or thirty seconds at that time, I would find myself pausing to look deeply into the eyes of those around me. 

That’s when it dawned on me. 

Watching for what I could learn, remembering what was happening, being in that very moment. 

I reached for hope what I was able to wake at dawn.

I reached for hope in each second and found that when I was able to wake at dawn to create it, I could tuck it away to access it another day. 

Here is what I know now. 

Being able to look up, see the dawn and know that those days did exist with pure joy and gnarly intensity is what keeps me seeking for the answer to what I can do next. 

What did your winged heart bring you? 

Let’s find a way to keep that going together, my friends.

I am pulling in strength in a similar way that plants get ready to fall into a new space. 

They change, let go and are persistent with what they need to do. 

Knowing what comes next is how it goes with me, as well. 

It is also when I go back through my tried-and-true quotes that keeps my mind in a good direction. 

Strength is built by every day moves and grooves.

This is when I remember that strength is built by every day moves and grooves. 

A recent conversation also nudged me to look a bit deeper into what this looks like in life. 

Take some time to look at one of the people I have read about over the years. 

“Perseverance is not giving up. It is persistence and tenacity; the effort required to do something and keep doing it till the end.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee knows that strength is built. 

When I think about what is said here, I go back to how I have pulled in strength in the past. 

It is interesting to me that it has come through opposition.  

There are things, such as what you see here, that have helped me over the years. 

An exercise ball and a Bosu ball. Who knew! 

When I keep with what I know the strength that is built stays longer. 

Opposition is when my muscles and my mind become stronger. 

I pulled in the strength.

Here’s how it happened, and I pulled in the strength. 

First, came the change. 

I am a runner. Distance, intervals and mountains were my core. 

Then I began working with a trainer about a decade ago who knew me to start again. 

Oh, my lands! 

Not only did she know me but knew that I needed to change up the routine of running. 

Injury had come along with a decline in pursuits of my goals. 

My goals included staying strong, being flexible and looking at what can come next in physical endurance.

Have you done this? 

Perhaps you’ve been in a place where you’ve known your pace needed to be changed. 

Increase my abilities because strength is built.

My trainer added these two things to increase my abilities because strength is built. 

Creating steps, looking up and then getting stronger did come. 

Not overnight but with persistence and tenacity. 

Imagine it! 

It became what you read from Jackie. 

I then let go of what I had been before. 

Breathe with me as I go into this piece. 

The last race I’d done was on the mountains I love. 

In fact, it had been done to let go of the person I had been for so many years. 

Strength is also built on what I had been.

Strength is also built on what I had been and who I was becoming now. 

It was time to love the mountains and learn that opposition brings new strength. 

How can that be? 

I’ve asked that question for years. 

Sometimes while doing the very routines given by that trainer. 

To create something new I first needed to break down the old. 

Old thoughts, ways and forms from before I learned to move again. 

It also began to occur to me that my long rooted ways from my years had given me a good place to begin again. 

Finally, it was as if I was ready to begin looking at what was to come next.

There was a jaunt up one more mountain to begin this. 

It also had to do with the two things here. 

My trainer was fabulous when she gave me the work I needed to do. 

Here is what I now know. 

As the beginning became the middle of how strength was built for me, the daily parts of building my endurance reminded me of life. 

Starting where I was with someone who knew how to support my goals was important. 

Knowing what to do each day as a realignment with these two tools was powerful. 

Remembering that tenacity and audacity along with the opposition I felt as my muscles became stronger is what brightens each day now. 

Think about how you would like to build strength in any area of your realm. 

Consider if you’d like to find a trainer, friend or someone else to know how your strength is built. 

More to read:

Yoga and Creating Space #28

Regeneration of Energy #44