What is

I recently had a discussion within the world of Education to parse out the difference between evaluation and assessments. We concluded that evaluations include judgements/rubrics/cross-comparisons and were more formal in nature. In an assessment you see "what is" and take it from there, they can be frequent and low-key. Both provide great information.

This crosses over to something I'm working on (<---case and point) in meditation. Okay re-phrase, this is something I would like to transfer into my practice. I've been hoping to set a better intention for myself, mantra, or whatever that I can come back to for a couple of weeks. What I've realized is I've been searching for a goal rather than intention (thank you, internet).  Just like an assessment, an intention does not have a required result. Goals, like evaluations, may imply that something needs fixing, or there is something I should be or do.

So maybe what I will spend time asking myself is:

Do I have what I need?

My first instinct, funny enough is to say "no!" but perhaps if I look deeper I might see that some of these things are petty in the long term. It's a similar panic to what I experienced yesterday in Hancock's fabrics. I drove up and saw enormous yellow and red signs reading "Going out of business!" Not just this one, but all of them! So then I was trying to align my "needs" on the pre-scribbled list in my hand with my "future needs" plus the reality of my bank account.

Wants, needs, expectations...rinse, repeat!

Happiness in 60 Seconds