Growing up – from the age of 10 until leaving for college – the above inspiration, illustrated by a photo of a sunset, hung on my bedroom wall. During the impressionable years sleeping under and steeping in this message, the words became a part of me. I didn’t realize that until very recently. Now, I recognize the truth of the words without a doubt. I must have time to be alone. So do you.

In a writing retreat held in Taos, New Mexico last month, among the snowcapped mountains and dry aromatic sage, we were given the opportunity to be silent (or tortured, as some of the participants felt.) The periods of scheduled silence nurtured the space for stillness, enabling thoughts to run free. Thoughts that open to wonder. Wonder that opens to dreams. Dreams that begin to manifest. My childhood poster had ignited a fire in me: the fire of writing. Writing is a practice, a meditation, a vocation, a calling, an outlet, a declaration, a communication, a blessing, a vehicle, an offering, a proclamation.

To me, silence and aloneness are sacred. It allows for the underbelly of my soul to breathe and catch fire. Without it, I stay in a familiar cycle where thoughts and habits command my life.

Where is your room?

Your room is your space, the area of your life that is consciously devoted to your calling. It could be a physical area or location. It could be a specific opportunity in front of you waiting. It could be your individual capacity. It could be all three. As the end of the year approaches, the days get shorter and nature calls us home to our inner worlds. Find your room and explore the riches waiting to be discovered.

Your life might simply be calling you to slow down and rest. If this is you, create your room, your place to just be. Your room includes your body/your interior room (yes, of course) and your physical room. Consider this month’s 5 minute try-it for silence in a space where you can be alone.

Your life might be calling you to dig even deeper to access something inside that wants to be born. Where is your room?

Your life might be calling you to dig deepest to see and develop and nurture a new capacity that will serve you now and next in life. Where is your room?

You must have room to be alone so that your thoughts can run free. There you will access your wonder. There you will find your dream.

Authentic wealth wants space

I’ve written extensively about authentic wealth – wealth being much more than money – so I won’t repeat myself describing the myriad ways wealth manifests in life. Instead, I want to point to the need for space when developing your relationship to wealth and to money practices. Again, as the end of the year approaches and you recognize familiar patterns of financial frenzy in practical areas like holiday spending, charitable decisions, vacations, end-of-year tax planning, and money to-do’s – find your room and get silent, be still. Allow the frenzy to emerge in spacious awareness. Allow the frenzy to soften and drop. Then begin to see what is underneath. Ask thoughtful questions that bring you down into your belly to what is most important.

Let your close-kept money thoughts run free.
Give time to money wonder.
Allow your money destiny to be led by a dream.