I’ve known a wide range of people in life, from billionaires buying and selling companies, to artists like Frédéric Back who serve their ideals with an unwavering devotion, to a backwoods wanderer who lives very simply with lots of books and few other possessions. As you might imagine, these people have vastly different personalities, but they do possess a common characteristic: They have a clarity about who they are and what is important to them. Distractions make clarity difficult; we live in a distracting culture.

People with clarity are willing to do things they don’t want to do—things maybe the rest of us never get around to doing—in service of the larger objective. They also have a fierceness about not doing things that are counterproductive, that distract them from what they see as truly important.

Clarity attracts energy. Unfortunately that applies as much to dictators and despots as it does to messiahs. Some of what clarity attracts are in the human world—people, resources—and some are of a higher order.

Clarity makes self-discipline and sacrifice possible. Clarity allows those who possess it to do things others won’t do, even if they believe they should. Clarity allows those who possess it the power to make their dreams reality.

. . .

 And again, we come back to the crucial questions at the core of a human life.

 Who are you? What do you want out of life? Why? What about that vision do you think will lead to a deeply satisfying, meaningful life? Where’s the juice, the deep emotion, in that vision? Is there enough juice in that vision for you to sacrifice what you have to sacrifice to get there?

. . .

Below, a two page spread from the upcoming Heron Dance journal, Nurturing The Song Within. You can download a PDF of the two-page spread pictured below here, or click in the image.
To be published in early March. You can pre-order the Collector’s Edition printed on premium paper, superb image reproduction quality, high-end binding, here.