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This morning as I worked on "closing out"
2008 - the year I referred to early on
as "The Year of the Infinite", my
beloved Adela Rubio asked this
question:

If you were a reporter and capturing the
top 3 Featured Stories of your 2008, what
would they be?

How did those events shift your being?

Who did you become?

I had two "feature stories"
pop up fairly quickly and the
last one was hovering over me, within me
and all around me simultaneously which
made me feel nervous, excited, curious,
angry...I felt what my friend Rumi
would call "Bewildered" when he said,
“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”

I have given myself the gift of a day
to really be with this question, to allow
it to work through me because I am guessing
by the end of the day,what I thought were
my top two may not even be there and what
I thought was significant about them
may give way to some other discovery
about them.

How will I do this?

My process involves several steps of
engagement which I invite you to try
out as well.

First, I will sit with the question as I
have been doing since Adela asked it of
me an hour or so ago.

I will take the question and put it in
the back of my mind and let my "smarter"
mind, the quiet one without the monkey
swinging from branch to branch chattering
away, from interfering with what wants
to be heard.

I will write - several times throughout
the day.

I will prompt myself in my writing, not
with a question, but with an opening
statement, something like....

One of the top feature stories from
my life in 2008 is.....

and I will let my pencil move.

I may make a list of a bunch of possible
stories. Write on the top of the page:

My life top feature stores are....

and let it go.

I will go for a walk, with the same
opening statement as an invocation of
sorts. I will have my notebook ready
when I get home and as I cross the
thresh hold I will pick up my pen and
write.

I will also ask other people I encounter
the same question.

"If you were a reporter and capturing the
top 3 Featured Stories of your 2008, what
would they be?"

I will glean insights from others and
get the energy moving around this
question and after I have enough oomph
behind my curiosity, I will settle
into the oh-so-juicy, nitty gritty of

"How did those events shift your being?"

"Who did you become?"

Engage with me.

"If you were a reporter and capturing the
top 3 Featured Stories of your 2008, what
would they be?"