32 - Boost
Quick reminder to everyone - the Midway is fast approaching! Just a few weeks until it is time to celebrate and get outside with loved ones. I don't know if I am the only one guilty of this, but sometimes it feels like when events like this approach, the last minute approach is to try to 'do all the work' right before, so there is something to show. Very much like trying to brush your teeth and floss right before going to the dentist - maybe makes you feel a bit better? But rather than tell you that you're doing it wrong, truly anything worth doing is worth doing poorly (rather than not at all).
Living to your full potential is hard, and not something that most people achieve. It is precisely because it is difficult, that this is something that ought to be approached slowly and methodically - this isn't something you can floss away in the hour before your appointment. This is slower, like moving a mountain, like a river carving a canyon or the wind shaping the desert. Each of us must find that inner goal, that raison d'être that calls to us, that pushes us onward.
The Keystones are here to help us with exactly that, all of them. Take the Fourth Keystone for example - Endeavor to learn new things and be educated by others.
Learning something new is a slow process, but one that pays off in the long run; not only to you personally, but to all those around you and your community. This is precisely the sorts of things that the Midway is meant to celebrate. Never to late to start now.
Speaking of starting now, I want you to take a moment and think of a near or mid-term goal, and reflect on what you have been doing to meet that goal, to rise to that challenge. If the answer is nothing, do not fret. Let go of the pressure and the shame, and just focus on the doing. Set aside one hour every week, or 10 minutes every day, or 15 every other day - anything that works for you. All of these journeys begin with that first step. But when you set it aside, that needs to be sincere. An easy way is to set an alarm on your phone. Pick a time that works well. When the alarm goes off, get serious. Excuses are easy to make here, but be real: you have 15 minutes to spare. Use them well.
Remember that many people -- perhaps too many -- are not willing to invest the effort required to ensure the world is a decent place in which everyone can live. This is anathema to Paraclism, to the very core of our beliefs.
Have the courage to invest the effort. Often, it means investing it in yourself.
Become the rising tide that lifts all ships.
