GUEST POST: Gabriela Cadena
/Here's introducing today's guest post from Gabriela Cadena!
As I enter a new phase in my life, middle-age, I have been thinking about what makes a life a good one. When I was a new college graduate, I thought I could end childhood hunger (or some other huge goal) and now I see that it still exists. One of the transformations I underwent is to go from 'I can do it' to 'I need to be a part of a community that can do it'; or, as Chuck Palahniuk says in his novel, Diary: “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”
For me, the goal is to impact the world by helping people to work collaboratively together for the greater good – however they define it. Now, more than ever, this is needed. What will endure is the results of our actions today. In terms of impact, after my reflection, I have decided that I can make different levels of impact on different levels of society. I have served as a Condo Board President. I am a volunteer with my alma mater. I am a Kiva lender. I am an adoring aunt who is passing on the baton to my now 2 year old niece as I train her to be an agile sponge who can shine (to absorb the possibilities and to know who she is so she can stay strong). I have yet to do more and if I were to die today, I am at peace.
Since we don’t know how many days we have, we have to make the wisest use of them. Another transformation I have undergone is to go from being “busy” to just “being”. I used to live my life with a full daily agenda and I found that I was not making room for enough self-reflection, serendipity and self-caring in the form of adequate rest. In conclusion, I have found that in my life, I have to both take care of myself and the world simultaneously. I am at peace if my mortal life were to end today. Beingness has helped me drink from the sunshine of a Fall day and the stillness of a snowy day. There is magic in the beingness.
Gabriela Cadena is a lifelong learner who graduated from an Ivy League School and found out that the answers to life are often not academic. She is a Project Manager Professional (PMP) and is about to finish her certification as an Integral Coach with New Ventures West. She is dedicated to living her life and leaving the world in a better state than when she entered it. She lives in the Washington, DC area. Her strengths are Activator, Learner, Strategic, Ideation and Woo (Winning over others).
