The river freezes from the shore out to the middle. When spring comes, It thaws from the middle back to the shore. And always, beneath the surface, the river flows swiftly.

Like life.

Moments congeal into frozen memories lying on a photo book page, or hide in some obscure file on a computer or in the deep recesses of our minds.

Each moment makes a life flow with multi-coloured hues of possibility, Sometimes the colours flow freely. Sometimes they make a muddy mess. Always they flow as we learn to swim in the seas of life.

My life is changing soon. Soon I will be shifting horizons, seeking new vistas, leaping into a new way of being present in my day to day life.

It is an interesting place, this liminal threshold that leads to new possibilities as I leave old certainties behind.

I am curious.

What will I do next?

What do I want to do next?

It is an exciting space. Scary too. I have dreams. I have goals. I have a vision for what I want to do that will only unfold when I step out of my life as I know it today and leap into what awaits beyond the known.

For the past 13 years I have known what it means to make a difference by working in the homeless-serving sector. Before that, I volunteered for many years working with street teens. Throughout my tenure, I have been blessed with countless opportunities to have an impact, to use my voice proactively to create change. I have been fortunate to be able to apply my talents to shift perceptions and build bridges to other ways of seeing and responding to homelessness. And in the process, contribute to the public dialogue on homelessness to help minimize the thoughtless acts of those who struggle to separate the human being from the condition of homelessness, so that their judgements and condemnations do not further traumatize those whose experiences of it have beaten them down so far to the hard surfaces of the road of life, they fear there is no way up or out of the darkness.

Throughout my time working in this sector I have held onto my core beliefs that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. That we are all human beings on this journey of life. No different in our need for belonging, connection and love.

What is different for each of us are our life experiences, our beginnings, our family stories, our paths. Regardless of where we stand on the road of life, no matter our struggles or the ease with which we travel, we are all miracles of life, created equal, unique, magnificent. We are all born to shine.

Recently, I set a deadline for myself, the thought being, I need a date by which I am committed to ‘create change’ for myself that will open up new possibilities, new vistas for my life. That date is fast approaching.

As part of my discernment process, I started writing in my journal in answer to the question:  What do I want to do next?

My list came fast.

Write
Inspire
Create
Coach
Speak

And yes, I purposefully ordered my list to create an anchronym for myself:  WICCS.  This is my next bright idea for living my life fearlessly in Love with me, my life and everyone in it. Like the candle buring beside me on my desk, it carries the light of hope, possiblity, opporutnity and Love. It is my watchword, my beacon of possibility, its beautiful glow a reminder of all the wonder life has to offer.

The next question in my process is a little more challenging. It requires me to stay open to the Three C’s of Possibility:  Curiosity. Courage. Commitment and to be open to living in the questions while fearlessly standing in the dissonance of not having to know the answers so that the answers can appear without my forcing them into being: What do I do next to create my future?

Theses are exciting times. Like the river which is beginning to thaw from the centre back to the shore, I am opening myself up from my heart out to explore all that is possible when I stop standing on the shores of what I know and dive into the depths of life’s unexplored possibilities.

Namaste.