Intro:
My dear friend Laura Lavigne is the founder of the Center for Happiness in Anacortes, Washington. I was extremely blessed to spend six weeks near the end of 2018 living with her in Anacortes and helping out in small ways at the Center. One of the first things Laura taught me was about Essence. You can learn more about Essence here.
While living in Washington, I often found myself and my friends declaring an Essence for the day like “playfulness” or “connection” or “adventure.” The idea of beginning a morning with an intention not of what I wanted to accomplish, but of the things I wanted to feel was new and exciting.
A mutual friend of Laura and I was chatting with us about Essences when he mentioned wanting to focus on an Essence each month of 2019. Enchanted with the idea, I asked Laura to share with me a list of Essences. These are my reflections.
Essence of April: Vision
Boy, was I all over the place with this one. Picking my April Essence came shortly after writing a reflection of my March Essence (Expansiveness). The last line of that post reads, “I find myself marching into April with an open heart and a faithful beat and I am all the better for it.”
Naturally, then, when my eye caught “openness” on the list of essences, I thought that was a smooth transition. But life doesn’t always operate in “smooth transitions.” Instead of looking at the list and letting one jump out at me, I closed my eyes and thought about what I really wanted for April.
I could feel the multiple part-time jobs I was working orbiting like a diorama of Jupiter’s moons, floating past what I had drawn up as a small screen in my mind to help me… focus! That was it. I wanted to focus on focusing. But why?
I went back to my Inside Out inspired animated mind and thought about what the next few months may look like. “Well, I have a lot of ideas…” I could hear my catchphrase ricocheting off the control center walls.
In April, I want to be intentional and focused on the things I want to do because I have a plan and it’s a little tricky and it has a lot of moving parts, but I want to see it through.
I have a plan.
April will be a month of vision. It’s exciting to have a big idea for the future. It was around this time last year that I was full-steam ahead on my “idea” of driving across America spreading kindness.
It’s even more important to act on the idea. My intention is to focus on my vision and hold that attention through the daily tasks of making it a reality.
I can’t wait to create what happens next.
Love always,
Liz
Essence of January: Discernment
Essence of February: Trust
Essence of March: Expansiveness
Essence of April: Vision
