Everything You Have Ever Loved

Love will lead you to your best work yet, as well all your loves still to come.

Do you know what you love? Emphasis on the “what”and an accent on the “know”. And on “you, number two” make sure you hit that hard too. And did I say “love”? Yes, big beat plus for that word also. Got me? In other words, this is ALL something to emphasize.

Picture yourself in a room, filled so full with stuff, the small and the big, you have to dig your way through. That’s where you already live everyday of this life you lead: in a room full of all the whats that you have connected deeply emotionally with. And it is that room that I want us to use more wisely. That is, IF you want to make better work, spot better work, do it all faster and feel more enthusiastic about the whole darn thing.

The room of everything you have ever loved needs to be your guide. It’s going to tell you what you are to make. It’s going to drive you there no matter the condition your condition is in. You need to know it inside and out. You want to know it so well we can hear it in your breath. Feel its jaunt in your step. There it is! In the faraway look in your eye. It brought you here today, and is what is going to carry you far beyond tomorrow.

There is so much for you to love, so much that you have already found. Grab it. Hold it.

Enough with that poetry stuff, this is a practical tool I am handing you now. Maybe more of the leveler or the grease than the hammer, but one with a wee bit of magic woven in. Everything you have ever loved (EYHEL) should be used to develop pattern recognition to spot all the new love yet to bloom in what's coming towards you. EYHEL is going to help you see around the corners. EYHEL will help you see what is emerging before it is even there. It is the essence of your instinct, and you can train it catch the beat before your feet start to dance.

You know those days where obligation and intention is a firehose blasting full on at you, when you are asked to make so many decisions that the sane response is probably to break or at least to cry but everyone’s looking at you and that is not what they need right now so you are going to have shrug it off and somehow power through? You do that and you do it pretty damn well or else you wouldn’t be here now for me to tell you this, but… this is going to help you do it even better. This is what you use. EYHEL. You see through the noise by recognizing what has already served you so well. EYHEL. That is the sense you want to sharpen. EYHEL. Hell yeah.

I find we are all a bit like The Lion, The Scarecrow, The Tinman, Dorothy and Toto too. We have what we need but we need others to help us recognize it. I am not going to give you any certificate, but I do think we all need to take stock of what we know we love and let it lead us. How? Well…

My recommendation for what to do in Class #1 is to begin a notebook and on each page write something you love or have loved. 100 pages. Over the next two weeks you find what you need be it four or twenty sittings. Take what you need, but don’t stretch it too far. Get to one hundred things. It is not really EYHEL but you will have time for that. This is just the assignment for the first year. You are going to be going strong for a good long time. Trust me. You need this. You can use this.

Once you’ve completed this first bit of the assignment, it’s time to find the the cracks where the love gets in. Shed some light. Why that? What was the feeling? A glimpse of the memory. Keep it short. Keep it evocative. Ideally it is enough to summon the thought but to not fill it all in. You want some gaps.

Nothing is complete and never should be. You don’t need to color within the lines, just show them some respect. A sentence or two of why you feel what you. Don’t over do it, and don’t spend too much time on this either. There’s not getting it right. That’s not the point. Find the thing that brings the love around once again. Be able to see it when it no longer is there. That’s what you want. When you are tired and exhausted, burnt out and run down, there it is, with its big furry arms wrapped around you, and a warm breath nuzzled into your neck.

You know the morning light, when you are sipping your tea, before you turn the lights on for the day. Yup. Pg 6 maybe.

Those dogs of all sizes and ages in the park around the corner. It’s the way they chase after the ball. Page 42 I think.

You put the sun dappled through the trees, dancing off the table top and the glasses your roommate brought you from Italy, you put it after single malt whisky on a late fall evening, oysters and beer on the place by the pier, and still nothing beats reading a novel for pleasure on the couch with the windows open when a warm breeze tickles your knees. She may like the church services and you walks with the dog. To each their own but what about that little town where you got the lemonade that time. Oh, that time. And Matisse. or Miles. Hot chicken from that place in New Orleans. Not everyone feels the same about Dylan, but that’s because they haven’t listened to Visions of Johanna. Whatever it is, find it, jot it down, roll it round, and tell the book what’s the hook. A few words to take you back. To take you in. To move you over. To help you know the essence.

This list is going to make you tick. It’s more that a magic trick. If you do the work, repeat the process, and make it from scratch year after year, you gain speed, harvest insight, make it all work.

Let me know how it goes, but I know you are going to ace the test and your best work is in front of you.