"Often, confusion is the tension of trying to make sense of things too soon, before enough of the inner players have learned their parts." —Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

Upon reading these words during a morning meditation moment this past month, my awareness regarding a couple, no, more than a couple, of quandaries in my life were put at ease. I audibly breathed deeply and my shoulders lowered, the tension evaporating. 

What has you confused right now? What are you unconsciously over-thinking until you are mentally exhausted, so exhausted you move through your days less than your best?

Read the above quote again, and relax knowing, the confusion is part of the journey to knowing. 

As you may already know, I am in the middle of edits on TSLL's third book, and I will be including Petit Plaisirs throughout as it is a book of daily meditations. Some of the Petit Plaisirs are recommended concertos, and while there are many reasons I am including my favorite selections of classical music, one of the reasons has to do with the analogy I have held our lives to be - capable of being symphonic in their own unique way. 

The players, musicians if you will, in a symphony come to the stage with years of experience and practice. And then add the practice and rehearsal of the pieces played with the rest of the players to perform the concerto in harmony lead by a conductor whose language they also must interpret, cacophony may be heard for years, but it eventually leads to a symphony of gorgeous sounds in the end. All of this is to say, it takes time to reach the wondrous productions audiences find timeless, magnificent and spell-binding. Our lives are very much the same. 

As human beings we have the prescience of our death being part of our life journey. We also have the capacity to learn vast amounts of knowledge, and improve our skills as well as our innate gifts throughout the duration of our lifetime. Add in the unique life experiences we choose as well as those we don't and oh my goodness, there are so many players we are trying to bring together to play into a symphonic production, it might seem impossible. But it is not. Our lives just ask of us to be patient, not give up and keep practicing until the players know how to work with each other. 

Your life wants to soar to its greatest heights, you just need to let it by not thinking the confusion you feel is reason to stop. It's actually the exact opposite, but you must not rush towards an outcome. Simply keep practicing, keep letting the ideas mingle about together and soon they will find their song. 

Mark Nepo goes on to say, "Often, experience is the heart and mind and spirit practicing what they need to play." And that is why we need to let go and refrain from forcing any one scenario to take place, and especially forcing it to happen at a particular time on our life calendar. By forcing, we may negate it from ever happening at all, and that is how we hinder our growth and opportunity. 

Knowing such a truth brought me peace, and I hope it will for you as well. As we step into a new season next month, breathe through the confusions that may arise, let go of forcing yourself to make sense of them by a certain time and just let them wander. In time, they will make more sense. 

The last Friday of August arrived quite quickly it seems, and I am happy to be "meeting" with you all again. Many of you are also subscribed to the weekly newsletter, so you may have been staying caught up on the many blog posts this month, but this is the newsletter in which the letter from the editor is shared, an exclusive delivery of a few thoughts to perk up your weekend, the end of the month and help make the next new month fresh and ready to be as awesome as possible. Thank you for choosing to subscribe. Now to the newsletter.

You will find a round-up of this year's annual French Week, as well as three recipes, three Monday Motivational posts, and so much more. Wishing you a lovely weekend. Bonne journée

To explore every post you wish to read, be sure to become a subscriber to one of the two tiers - BASIC or TOP as non-subscribers can only read five posts a month (it will reset on the first of each month). 

Until Friday September 24th, I will see you on the blog.

—Shannon