Tuning the Intentional Radar Dish
I’m in the middle of a course with Sebene Selassie (one of my favorite meditation teachers) that’s about creating intentions, rituals, and ceremonies for change. Last week, we focused on intentions and how to—as Sebene put it— “develop a wise relationship to change.” I’m not a big fan of the Instagram-style #ManifestIt take on intentions making your dreams come true as long as you focus on them hard enough. I mean, manifest away if it works for you, but I find that approach often comes with some ignoring of the social structures that make some folks’ ability to manifest new realities for themselves a hell of a lot easier than it is for others.
What I do really appreciate about Sebene’s (and others’) take on intentions is the idea that you can decide how they help focus your energy and put them to your own use in your own way. I like setting intentions as a way to direct my thoughts, my energy, my vibes to be especially open in that area of my life. It means I’m ready to be receptive in that arena. The dish is tuned. The radar signal is switched on.
Photo by Tommy L
This year, I’m using the general intention of turning toward abundance (that I’ve written about previously), and I want to tell you a little story about how that intention-setting radar metaphor has intersected with the changes and serendipities of my life in this Ball Bearing Era of mine (“all pivots, all the time”).
hmmm… maybe there’s an opportunity approaching
A few weeks ago I caught up with longtime friend Miriam Bader—insightful systems thinker, kindhearted facilitator, fellow Taylor Mac devotee, full-time remote-working digital nomad, comrade in escaping the full-time museum education grind—who is living for chunks of time in various inspiring places around the western hemisphere. While I sat chatting at the surprisingly beautiful river overlook behind where my car was getting some new brakes, Miriam mentioned she was planning to find a short-term rental in Seattle for part of the fall. We’ve been talking off and on for a couple years now about sharing a rental sometime, so when she mentioned a specific spot, my intentions radar pinged.
Brakes installed (and wallet bruised), I drove Stella home, only to discover a text from one of my college besties who knows all about my Ball Bearing Era. She and her husband are off to Scotland for the first half of September. While they’re gone, she wanted to know, would I be at all interested in cat- and house-sitting for them… in Seattle?
closing in on opportunity
The radar ping increased its frequency.
I’d written in my quarterly planning for 2023 to throw myself a travel curveball in Q4. I’m now looking at this in the frame of Sebene’s thoughts about intentions helping us make our wise ways through change. Keeping my “travel curveball” and abundance intentions in mind meant I was ready to see the serendipity in these two Seattle gathering opportunities and turn it into action.
And here I’m calling back to what I shared last time I wrote, about pulling the Seven of Cups as my tarot card in answer to the question How can I turn toward and foster abundance in the rest of the year?
The Seven of Cups is about making choices and not letting your imagination run away with you. Opportunities are before you, but don’t allow yourself to be distracted into trying to pursue all of them. In Tarot for Change, Jessica Dore makes this suggestion:
“If you pull this card, why not take whatever you’re consulting the cards about and come up with an alternative ending where the best possible thing happens, instead of the worst. Instead of imagining an outcome you don’t like, substitute it for one that involves grace, compassion, and power.”
I’m taking this card in that spirit, as my reminder for the coming second half of the year. As more work and life opportunities come my way, I will decide and move toward them without letting myself catastrophize or second-guess my decisions (both things I’m quite prone to).
And so I am off to the Pacific Northwest for a chunk of the fall.
radar locked on opportunity (gif by Augusto Galvão)
Combining Jessica Dore’s inspiration and Sebene’s intentions focus, here are some of the things I’ll be tuning my radar dish of energy toward in September and October…
I’m dreaming about some time in Seattle and its environs that will give me time to bask in Big Nature and new surroundings to find creative inspiration (my Q4 cue to myself is to celebrate an abundance of creativity).
I’m going to offer a retreat similar to the Work/Life one I held in April, this time for folks in the PNW region.
I’m reaching out to friends and colleagues I know in the region for the opportunity to reconnect and potentially dream up some collaborative projects.
I would love to work with a museum client while I’m out there (so if you are or know one, hit me up).
I’m hoping to spend some time in a remote/retreat spot to do some planning and strategizing for 2024.
I’ll be opening the doors for the next cohort of CARE (the Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs), so if you know anyone seeking a community of other creative entrepreneurs, the time is coming.
I’m excited to spend some time around Portland, Oregon, where I haven’t been since I was a kiddo.
I’m not making too many plans in advance about where exactly to stay or what to do, in an effort to capture some of the magical spontaneous spirit of last year’s #RSRSeesTheUSA cross-country road trip.
I’m approaching this time as a sampler of what I might be able to do while living temporarily in other places. While I don’t want to be a full-time nomad, it is very much on my attentional (and intentional) radar to travel around in ways that are not for vacation, but allow for both exploration and work all at once.
Before I swing the intentions radar dish toward Seattle, however, I’m tuning it to my annual August reading retreat from the internet.
I’ll be pressing pause on my writing/posting schedule for the rest of this month, deleting the social media apps from my devices, and heading to a cabin with no internet to read a whole lot of books and do little else. I love this annual digital detox, and it’s the center point of my Q3 cue to myself to celebrate an abundance of time and space.
What are you reading this summer? Where are you tuning your intentional energies? Are you around the Pacific Northwest this fall and want to come visit?
Creative Prompt Coda: Spend 5 minutes daydreaming about what intention calls out loudest to you for the rest of 2023. Write it on a piece of paper and put it in a place where you’ll see it regularly.
