Revolutions

Revolving. 

It is really helpful to know what it is you revolve around.

• What do you revolve around?

It is possible to define certain axes – family, friends, people who are at the heart of things; beliefs which move you to action in the first place; dreams that stretch your heart out to horizon places. Revolve around the thoughts that you always have when you walk in a certain place; a prayer you say every day. Revolve around what you know of yourself, in the space you create so as to be yourself. Revolve around patience and kindness for yourself and your slowness to settle, and around love for the gentle others that give you shelter to wrestle whatever has come up on the journey. Revolve around a routine.

Necessary axes stop the wheel working itself off the cart. Revolving around these, you recall why you agreed to an adventure in the first place.

And there are also revolutions. 

• What revolves around you, cropping up time and again?

As you revolve, what things in your life come around with some frequency? A wise old chap once described the spiritual journey for me not as a straight line, but as an upwards curling spiral. You can expect to arrive at familiar points in life where the same issues or themes seem to crop up, but you have grown in the meantime so you have new perspective. Pay attention to these themes while they roll around with you. They exist to shape you up in a unique way and build your particular character, as you were made to be. That's what the wise old man suggested anyway.

And then there is breakthrough revolution. This is all about life appearing where there seemed to be none. 

• Where do you see breakthrough?

These children playing and smiling – knowing where they have come from, this is good breakthrough. In Peru, revolution looks like happy kids. They are safe, and get to revolve around loving people, steady routines of meals, singing lessons and playtimes. Those smiles are what keep the loving people going in their tough work. 

Home again after a huge and beautiful adventure, these stories are amongst the things I revolve around too. And of course, because the whole thing has sent my head and heart into a spin, I'm going around the revolutions with nearest and dearest who were there when the wheel started moving in the first place.

What are your revolutions all about?

{Today's Soundtrack: Me, slightly in love - My Funny Valentine}