Restoring faith in my beginner era
I am in my era of being a beginner again, and this also means reaching out to strangers as a navigate new fields, liminal spaces, crossroads.
In the last few weeks, I've sent four cold-emails to strangers I found on the internet whose experience or body of work I found interesting and inspiring, and whom I thought I could get some guidance on navigating my own season of transition. Two out of four of them responded... and in the next couple of hours too! I was incredibly thrilled to see a ping hours after I had sent those emails out. One offered a phone conversation to share more. Another offered to grab coffee.
And I'm grateful, and truly relieved, to be shown this generosity.
There is one kind of crossroad where an exercise of listing out the pros and cons will take care of. There is a second kind that is more complex, but can be resolved with time and clarity about what it is that you want. Then there is a third kind where, caught between what seems like a rock and a hard place, one seeks divine intervention.
I'm talking more of the second kind here.
This is crossroad where I know very well that only I hold the key to navigating. I have to first have clarity about what it is that is in the way. What am I resisting? Who am I unwilling to be? Who am I trying to be?
If this is something I can take care of on my own, why reach out to strangers? For me, I've realized by studying my own impulses, that the gift and comfort of connection, that this reaching out could result in a response, was a large part what I needed. Receiving advice and guidance from someone more experienced is without a doubt helpful and partly why I do what I do. But here, what I had sensed would help me on my way was to receive a signal, that there is another warm and generous one out there.
When I hold a belief that isn't serving me, I want to be able to test it. I want to see if I can poke holes in that argument. Does what I believe hold any consistent truth? So call this a micro-experiment if you want! I've found that to be incredibly helpful in softening this ambient scarcity mindset that I've gotten so used to hauling around with me.
I want to believe that I am not alone in my own journey, that there are others in the field that I can simply reach out to seek guidance from. I want to live my moments feeling like I am surrounded by kin and allies, rather than competitors.
In this coming months, I hope to be able to cultivate a greater field of abundance, and be more proactive in connecting, en-couraging, uplifting others. In turn, I hope for more courage to lean on the support of others kindred spirits, loved ones, and individuals who believe in the work that i am doing