Inspired Leap - You are far more brilliant than you think you are!

-Gracie Allen (in a note to her husband George Burns, found after she passed away. Per PoeticExpression.com.

When I Googled the quote, I found the link to the Poetic Expressions website and the story about Gracie Allen and the legendary comedian George Burns. I don't know if the story is true, but I love it anyway. As the story implies, Gracie Allen's quote is aptly associated with the grieving process, which is certainly part of a move, no matter how exciting and positive.

My friend Linda wisely reminded me to not make rash judgments about what moves forward with me and what doesn't, and how I move forward. For who knows what the future will truly hold, and we can't always see the real reason for some changes in our lives until months later.

It may turn out that we're simply going out one door for awhile to learn something only a new direction can take us, and we will come back in (from another direction) a stronger, wiser, and happier person.

Have you shut a door recently or put a period where a comma really needs to be?

Is there some unfinished business or valuable part of yourself and your life that got left behind in the process? Perhaps it's time to go back and reclaim it.

Cosnider these situations that bring up "door-shutting" :

Going through a divorce or separation;
Losing a loved one;
Starting a new job (even in the same company);
Moving to a new city or neighborhood;
Starting college or graduate school;
Being told "no" to a request for a new job, move, admitance into a coveted program, or a marriage proposal;
Hitting serious roadblocks on your path to achieving what you thought was your life dream, but now you doubt yourself;
Being laughed at or made fun of;
Experiencing a serious, life-changing illness; or
Losing a dear friendship due to an arguement or misunderstanding.

Have you experienced any of these? Think about how you might have quickly placed a "period" after the experience instead of a comma. Is it really a definite end, or is there a useful connection to be made from the past to the present and possibly into the future?

Another perspection on the period versus the comma is to compare the choice of one or the other to the preferences of the left and right hemispheres of your brain. Your left brain really prefers deductive reasoning and getting down to one right answer. It's much more comfortable with a period after an experience or situation, as that means it can move on to the the next thing.

Your right brain (the intuitive side) is much more comfortable with an inclusive approach, like the comma. It is perfectly happy juggling a lot of different options (marvelous possibilities!) at once. By tacking on to the past, instead of decisively ending before one starts a new phase, the right brain perceives that it gets more choices and therefore more creative solutions or ideas are bound to arise from this.

True genius is the ability to use the strengths of both the left and right brain at the right time. While many novelists fall in love with the one sentence paragraph, the best writing is a balance between the creative detail of the sentence with many commas and the clarity and simplicity of the short sentence. Like writing, we need to know when the commas are weighing down our lives or when we've prematurely placed a period where one doesn't yet belong.

When you find yourself in one of the situations where "shutting a door" or placing a period at the end of it seems the only choice, consider doing the following:

The reality is that we don't know what the future will hold and all of our rich experiences give us a wealth of knowledge to draw upon in the next phase of our lives and the many phases that will come after. Perhaps, like me, you might need a gentle reminder of this truth. When that time comes, remember the wisdom of Gracie Allen and consider placing a comma where you're inclined to put a period.

Remember to frequently use commas in your life and judiciously choose periods. Trust your intuition to help you determine when it's time to truly shut a door.