I need to be in nature and I especially love being near the river by my house. The river teaches me life is connected and keeps going. The butterflies call me back to the present moment and to see through my true-eyes. Children remind me to receive life as it is and that I don’t need to try to figure life out. I can allow life to figure me out instead. Friends and family remind me I'm not doing this life thing alone. I am fascinated with the song that nature sings. It reveals how life works, what we are, and offers us the invitation to step out from under familiar forces we find comfort in serving and identifying with. Maybe that is a job we hate, a relationship we feel we're pretending in, or a house we hate affording.

Unadulterated joy and happiness cannot be taken, but they can be discovered, appreciated, nurtured, felt, lived, and shared. Understanding my truth is essential as I uncover my joy and happiness. I like to think that our “truth" is a powerful, malleable and endless process directed by wonder and questions. Whatever we need to engage with that helps us remember and nurture our authentic-self is so important. I am learning that the questions unearthed in this process are doorways to gold-nuggets.

The gnawing and wonderful question "Who am I?" is easily hidden under our attempts to belong to something outside ourselves, and our attempts to try to manage the image of ourselves we prefer others to see. It is easy to hide in a look, book, band, belief, job, experience (past, present, or future), relationship, or the picture of our future we're encouraged to carve into our psyche and protect at all costs.

I’m learning how pointless and counter to my health it is when I over-assign value to absolutely everything in my life. It leaves no space or time for appreciating life. Over-assigning (or playing God) value can seem to provide some sense of safety, control, and belonging without requiring me to change. I go to extremes and my versions usually confirm my limited and inflated, or deflated views. I cover up the questions and get distracted from the freedom of life in every moment. "Who am I?" is an uncomfortable question that I think will always stay with me because I need it in a world of constant change. It is uncomfortable to ensure I do change. It should be exciting as well! We need this question and we need to engage with what we find if we are going to feel alive and truly loved. Only then we can offer the same to others. I like to think that the journey inward is the journey outward, and vice versa. It has seemed this way in my experience at least.

-Josh