When I first started this puzzle, I almost gave up. It has no edges and no corners and it was mostly blue so all the typical methods I’d used to start a puzzle were not available.

But I was listening to a good book and had nothing to lose so I kept at it.

I found a few small patterns that looked like they went together and slowly, slowly started to form some sort of a shape

I made several wrong assumptions along the way and had to turn things right to left or upside down.

But I got there in the end.

It was a good reminder that just because I don’t know how to start doesn’t mean I can’t keep at it and that I can still find my way through and finish.

#open #olw #stayingopen

About two months ago I quit caffeine. I was having trouble sleeping through the night uninterrupted and I’d already tried everything I could think of, so as a last resort I quit caffeine.

I didn’t get any of the excruciating headaches that I was expecting.

I still drink tea (herbal) and coffee (decaf) and coke zero (not caffeinated) so it doesn’t seem to have made a huge difference on the surface.

But I am mostly able to sleep through the night uninterrupted now.

I still miss my tea most of all. And being able to get soda when I am out and about but it’s been absolutely worth it.

Now if only I could walk away from sugar the same way.

#open #olw #stayingopen

Isn’t the.world.so magnificent? Sometimes we forget.

#open #olw #stayingopen

One of my favorite people at work is so wildly different than I am. In ways that would seem to be incompatible and yet I love working with her. I think the dynamic between working for, managing, and working alongside matters a lot for what I think is ideal from my peers.

And I think that I would always choose someone kind over any other attribute. Give me kind, give me hardworking and give me collaborative. Smart is overrated and without the other three, it is not good enough.

But as long as they are the three I love working with people different than I am and learning and being open to other ways of leading. So grateful to get to learn from people I admire.

#open #olw #stayingopen

There are ways of being that have worked for me for 48 years. Ways I show up, things I say, things I do. They’ve led me to this wonderful life that I appreciate so much.

and yet.

And yet they also get in my way. I’ve been carrying these behaviors as the way to be for so long that I don’t even know what happens when I am not this way. Is there an even better outcome on the other side of that other way of being?

This is also what open is about. Open to other ways of being. Open to my way not being the only way. Open to change and options and a shift in perspective.

Oh captain! My captain!

#open #olw #stayingopen

There’s so much going on. Both in the macro and the micro sense I feel like there’s more going on than I can absorb at this moment. Devastation, inflation, depression, layoffs, anxiety, sickness, unidentified objects in the sky, bruised joints, overwhelm and more.

It’s too much.

So instead I am staying here in this moment. Open to being here and seeing the good that’s available to me. Trying to center and ground myself in gratitude for what is.

Trying.

#open #olw #stayingopen