Miles to go before I sleep

This has been an interesting season. The startup I was with ran out of funding in the fall. So while I look for the next full-time gig I have been contracting with some great people doing brand consultation and development. I am enjoying the work so much. Helping build something and bring clarity and life to a new story and brand.

But I’ve also got the unsettled feeling of what is next. “Where will I land,” “should I keep pursuing this,” “is now not the time,” etc. etc. etc. etc. etc…

But Frosts’s poem resonates. The anxiety of the horse wondering why we’ve stopped. The driver just needing a minute to be present, grateful, enjoy where he’s at, deal with the unsettled nature of it, also to acknowledge all that needs to happen, all that is to come.

I am living in that tension for sure right now. Gratitude, joy. Worry. The woods are beautiful in a peaceful, spooky, calm, unsettling kind of way. And that is good, that is where I am.

In these moments I often find identity and purpose. That feeling is helping me/you/client find out who we are. With identity I can find purpose. With purpose, we then know what to do. We have responsibility to act consistently in-line with that purpose. Identity, purpose, action. 

Figuring out who you are and what you want to do is unsettling, but also very defining and aligning in nature. It’s possible to move forward in the uncertainty with purpose and clarity. I’m certainly finding that. One mile at a time.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know. 
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.