What do I do?

In challenging times – world-wide crises and our own personal journeys through life – I found myself and others asking: Where do I start? What can I do? What is mine to do?

One answer stands out, everytime: Start where you are.

“Start where you are” brought me a lot of – mostly volunteer, some paid, yet definitely – new projects around regeneration.

“Start where you are” gave me more purposeful interactions than ever before. Yet, the more I looked for paths toward designing a regenerative culture, the bigger and more complex the topic became. The more and more grew the amount of parallel engagements, operational tasks, fulfilling commitments, and trying to keep everything together.

With less and less time to make sense of the things I learned, to practice a regenerative culture myself, and to truly connect with people where they were.

To connect with me where I was.

As I sat down on this bench at the pond last night, I wondered:

What if I don’t need more ideas, more parallel engagements, or better answers? What if I need better questions? What if I need more beautiful questions to see and feel if these projects, tasks, and work are still part of my direction?

Together with my holistic context, these questions would be there to help guide me in the present moment. To make better decisions about where to say yes and where to say no to. To live more in the here.

These questions may change over time with leaning into them and learning more about myself and the environment I inhabit. I am also quite self-conscious about them and have more than once thought “naa, that should be phrased better.” But that doesn’t matter. They are still better than any answer I have found so far.

The questions are connected to some of the projects I am currently engaged in. And which I need to assess and balance out. Starting as soon as I get up from the bench at the pond that I am sitting on again.

Yet, right now, I will stay a bit longer. There’s a kingfisher living in one of the trees on the edges.

And I want to see him flying by again.

What are your more beautiful questions?