My social media friend Stephenie Red Feather, author of The Evolutionary Empath, made a post that got me thinking about success and failure, and how our views around that relate to courage.

I'll keep it simple...

Calling something a success or failure is a judgment that i'm not willing to make. Instead, everything is just an experience that I get to process. Yes, things do not come out the way I wanted them to, or thought they would, all the time. I've learned to be fully open in my reception of those outcomes. And because of that, I will often realize I found something new that I could never have expected, predicted, or created without some intervention beyond myself. We can think about these as "accidents" or "divine interventions" or "creativity," some of the many names for the concept of "God" that I grew up with. Either way, they can be expanding if we allow for the new and unexpected stuff they bring!

So it is simple...

I don’t believe thinking in terms of success and failure is productive or helpful. There are only experiences. Courage, to me, is having the presence to respond to those experiences, no matter how challenging, with my full bandwidth of understanding. And when I can be present with whatever outcome is in front of me, then my bandwidth of understanding expands. My encyclopedia grows. My lexicon multiplies. This is how I grow deeper in consciousness. This is how I expand my time here on planet earth. 

peace, paul

Chicken of the WoodsEpic Mushroom City

This epic chicken of the woods mushroom had presented itself before. Never in this much glory and splendor. It was as if the mushroom said "he doesn't seem to notice us yet. So, lets make it impossible for him to miss!" It grew in the heart of the rootball of a giant red oak tree that fell 8 days after doing a ceremony to clear some ancient wounded earth-keeper energy. When I ate this castle, it felt like I was taking in the wisdom of this multi-generational space-holder and guardian, who lays at rest in the heart of Harmony Farm.