Trusting My Soul

Sun and Clouds — New Years Eve Morning

Self-compassion is paramount. When you are compassionate with yourself, you trust in your soul, which you let guide your life. Your soul knows the geography of your destiny better than you do. John O’Donohue (Interview by Mary NurrieStearns on https://personaltransformation.com/)

Trusting my soul. Ahhh … that feels so very rich, right, nourishing. Aligned with my highest aim. Shooting for the stars, not as a goal to accomplish, but to remember that I came from stardust (as did we all) and my soul knows the wisdom of this cosmic connection. The connection that maps the geography of my destiny.

How do I know when I’m trusting my soul? I wonder, and …

Compassion. I’ve been sitting with you, contemplating your nature for a bit. Compassion – ‘with passion’. Passion from the soul which feels, perhaps fills, the heart of my being.

So, compassion, you are of the heart, and that heart must throw off the shackles of numbness that hold illusions of protection.

Protection. From what? From whom? Being numb is no protection at all! Indeed, in my numbness I cannot see the world, another, or even myself and behold the beauty that is Life. And I cannot see the suffering, the pain, the degradation … Wake up!

To feel compassion is to care. Self-compassion is self-care. Daring to dwell deep in the heart and care for the heart of the matter. The matter of Life. All Life. Sacred Life.

These words, these thoughts seem jumbled as if they are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without a picture on the box to guide me. What pieces are missing?

What, if any, action flows from compassion? What is mine to do, to act upon? The question burns. Our culture demands action, doing. Surely it is not enough to simply feel the pain of another’s suffering. Or of Mother Earth being trampled and abused as a resource until we use her up. Or of callous killing in the guise of being secure.

But how will my soul answer?

What IS mine to do in ending these cycles of violence? What needs to awaken in me?

I shudder a bit, and, with a gulp, ask Muse, “Is this jumble what is to be shared today?”

“Trust your soul,” comes the reply, likely with a wink and, perhaps, a nod.

Soul suggests there is a bit more. In opening to deeper compassion and honesty about the world, I must not let that world drag me into its morass. Mine is to discover the geography of my destiny and then to trust the map. My map, drawn in communion with the cosmos, and present in my soul. Mine is to know that my, indeed our, greatest task is to BE above the fray, even when events bring that fray to our doorstep.

Beyond the world’s chaos my soul envisions the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. My task, soul seems to say, is to hold that vision in the darkest of times, especially for those who are suffering or in survival mode and those whose misery leads them to foment discord and more. To lift them up in my heart and see them, indeed all of us, IN that more beautiful world. To behold love as the standard by which humanity will thrive and to hold myself to that standard. The puzzle pieces begin to fall into place …

A Colorado Blue Sky Day!

Vulnerability - Are We Willing?

Nature’s Art on the Trail

When you become vulnerable, any ideal of perfect image you may have had of yourself falls away. Many people are addicted to perfection and in their pursuit of the ideal they have no patience with vulnerability. They close off anything that might leave them open to the risk of hurt. … With the revelation of corruption in so many political and religious domains, our perception of ideals has become tinged with cynicism. Yet no society can endure without the sense of honour, dignity and transcendence enshrined in its set of ideals. John O’Donohue

Writing in my journal several days ago I found my thoughts wander to the current array of political theatrics in the United States. ‘How do they get away it?’ I wondered, ‘they’ not being limited to a single political party or group, rather many elected officials and those who serve them. The ways of politics have become habitual rather than thoughtful, and we have become accustomed to ignoring them or watching as if they are entertainment. Disengaged. Enraged.

The journal stream ended with these words: Beyond blaming the other, we must face ourselves.

Reading O’Donohue’s words early this morning by the fire, the stream came back. It continued: And to face ourselves requires that we become vulnerable.

The absence of our openness to vulnerability breeds fundamentalism, self-righteousness, blame, and hard-heartedness. We fight and die to stave off the threat of being vulnerable.

Opening to vulnerability nurtures an open heart, compassion, curiosity, understanding, forgiveness, and creativity. Vulnerability is a pathway to peace.

What does vulnerability ask of us? What doors might more willingness to become vulnerable open for us, individually and collectively?

I’m reminded of an essay Charles Eisenstein posted earlier this week (click here to read) sharing the story of Raquel who dared to take a peaceful stand around a contentious, divisive issue and the stages she traveled to arrive at that place. I invite you to read it with an open heart and open mind, for surely like me, you find yourself on one side or the other of the issue she faced.

What if our political leaders could exhibit Raquel’s level of maturity, thoughtfulness, willingness to be vulnerable as they address issues of war? How can we create and hold this space, this possibility for them to step into? Are willing to step into this space ourselves? Are we willing to invite them?

O’Donohue’s words opened me to possibility. They point to the tricky, challenging path that making peace requires. Moving beyond blame to face ourselves and our shortcomings (past and present), forgiving ourselves and others. All for the sake of peace.

Simply asking the questions helped me shift from the anger, sadness, and disbelief at the continued war-mongering choices of my country’s leadership that I woke with this day. No matter what the question, war is not the answer. Love is.  Am I willing to step into the vulnerability of that? Are we?      

The Ziggurat on a Hazy Morning

Imagination-Creating Possibility in the Unthinkable

Autumn Mountain Morning

The imagination is capable of kindness that the mind often lacks … it does not engage in things in a cold, clear-cut way but always searches for the hidden words that wait at the edge of things. The mind tends to see things in a singularly simple, divided way: there is good and bad, ugly and beautiful. The imagination, in contrast, extends a greater hospitality to whatever is awkward, paradoxical or contradictory. … The imagination is always more loyal to the deeper unity of everything. It has patience with contradiction because there it glimpses new possibilities. And the imagination is the great friend of possibility. …this is what beauty is: possibility that enlarges and delights the heart. John O’Donohue Beauty-The Invisible Embrace

In the midst of the unthinkable, of horrors and hatred, of rancor and disrespect, turning from mind to heart offers a doorway of passage into a field of brighter possibilities.

Earlier this week I was given an opportunity to imagine the future, my future, three years out. The conversation inspired me to reflect more deeply on what a world of unity, peace, compassion, and integrity look like. How would we/I be in our responses to today’s multiple crises and violence? How would our leaders BE and what choices would they make in a world truly committed to peace? How might we shift?

The following day Charles Eisenstein shared his thoughts on those very questions (click here to watch). His answer in short: forgiveness, shifting from blame and revenge to forgiveness and seeking to understand. Not an easy or simple path, as any of us who have been ‘wronged’ and sought to forgive another know from our experience. Yet might we dare to allow our hearts to dream what our minds will surely declare is ‘impossible’?

In the midst of the unthinkable, of horrors and hatred, of rancor and disrespect, turning from mind to heart offers a doorway of passage into a field of brighter possibilities. Can we imagine a different future than where the arc of history seems headed? Dare we dream and endeavor to bring such dreams into reality, creating sacred spaces and fields of possibility?

I’m reminded of Rumi’s wise words:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I'll meet you there.

Even in the comfort and relative safety of home it is not always easy to imagine such a bright future. Life’s daily details and our habitual keeping up with today’s dramas, horrors, and predictions of the next scary thing may trap us in dead-end, worn out thinking and lead us to forget our power to imagine and call forth a different future.

Yet imagine a new world we must. Seeking those whose ideals resonate with ours and joining them in community to call forth and create the new. Creating new pathways and ways of being and doing right where we are.

Moment to moment we choose where to focus our attention, where to devote our precious life energy. What might be possible if, beyond our compassion and empathy, our sorrow and grief, we tapped into the kindness of the imagination to dream a future where we’ve grown our capacity to listen (deeply listen) to one another along with our willingness to engage in this way. Where we have the capacity to forgive past deeds (our own as well as those of others) and to imagine and create a new world together. And then to trust that such a world is possible even when that seems not so and despite history’s evidence to the contrary. How much beauty can we imagine?

To be sure, I have work to do. Let’s dance!

The Portal on Cordial

Life As Sacred Tasks

Fearless Bunny

Where things are moving too quickly, nothing can stabilize, gather, or grow. John O’Donohue (Anam Cara)

The sacred isn’t speedy. And speedy isn’t sacred.

The saying “take time to smell the roses” comes to mind this morning as I settle in to write. This week I’ve been present to the times when I experience the sacred in the tasks of daily life and when those sacred tasks become unpleasant chores to be rushed through.

Sometimes I catch myself urging Zadie Byrd to ‘hurry up ... I’ve got things to do’. I’m more present to the doing and completing than to self, to soul, to this canine being and to the sacred task of care for another. In this state I miss noticing the bunnies, the hummers, the blooms.

I lose that coherence when I rush to ‘get things done’ rather than being present to each as a sacred task in support of life, a life that I love.

What is the cost of dismissing the mundane in our rush to check things off our ‘to do’ lists?

I thought about this one recent morning when I found myself rushing through opening windows upon rising. I became aware of unconsciously doing the daily task rather than being present to greeting the day. Moving from one window to the next, I failed to greet the mountains and acknowledge the woods. Did I even see them?

With this awareness, I paused and retraced my steps, returning to each window to greet and thank the beauty and the beings that I’m blessed to live among. I chuckled, recalling that I’d recently mentioned to a friend how much I appreciate this summer morning ritual. I shared I was happy that maintaining a comfortable temperature in the home requires my attention rather than an automatic setting. Just as building a fire in the wood stove does each winter morning; opening windows, placing fans, and adjusting them as the sun’s angle changes connects me to the season, to Nature, to Gaia, the Cosmos, and their cycles.  By choice there is no Alexa, Siri, or smart thermostat to stand between me and Mother Nature.

How much sacredness do we lose to so-called convenience – personally and collectively? I think of the lost nutritional value, degradation of our health and the planet’s well being as a result of industrialized agriculture. What if we held the earth and her capacity to produce food as sacred? What if we held food as sacred and more robustly supported those who practice regenerative agriculture, providing fresh, nutritious foods? Just as is true for our souls, nourishing food ‘cannot stabilize, gather, and grow’ at warp speed.

The sacred isn’t speedy. And speedy isn’t sacred. What sacredness have we lost in other domains of life? How can we enjoy the comforts of life without offending or abusing the Natural world? How can I? How can we/I maintain the sacredness of life and its tasks with each sacred breath we breath?

Happy Hummers!

Pivot to Compassion

Grandmother Tree in the Woods Out Back

The greatest evil and destruction arises when people are unable to feel compassion. The beauty of compassion continues to shelter and save our world. John O’Donohue

The heart is the mother and father and origin of all creatures: the one who knows the heart from the skin is blessed. Rumi

This morning as I moved toward settling in with Muse to reflect and write, I feel drawn to Beauty, a favorite John O’Donohue book of essays, and as I move to find where I left this frequent companion last, I think of Rumi. A few more steps bring me to both, stacked together, just the two of them. Settling in I wonder ‘who will have the words of wisdom to guide the unfolding this day?’ ‘What wants to be shared?’

After writing a bit more, I opened O’Donohue. Then Rumi. I opened to pages where the words went straight to this heart, stirring a recent exploration into compassion that led me to recognize places where I could replace animosity or a quick harsh judgement with compassion or its companions – kindness, grace, tenderness – along with a sprinkle or two of curiosity.

When I’m fully present, conscious, aware and take time to drop into my heart, compassion or its kin are most always my choice, even in those events where a boundary needs to be drawn or a misunderstanding needs attention. Heck, even when I think I’ve been wronged by another. I aim for the heart to rule.

Alas, I don’t always make that mark. When I’m moving too quickly through a multitude of choices, decisions, projects, concerns, the mind grabs the steering wheel of the bus of life until I come to my senses, the deeper knowing of my heart.

Life offers opportunities moment to moment to choose who is driving. Will mind take over? Will heart prevail? Will I be compassionate about and toward the contractor who is incommunicado weeks after a project was to start? Mind wants the project done. Now! Heart says, ‘what if you trusted the timing to be perfect?’. While mind blames and abuses, heart wonders if he and his family are okay? Has something happened that I’m not aware of?

What if I met every situation where I feel disappointed in this same way? How might I more fully embody the belief I wrote about a few weeks back: Everything is connected to everything else. Everything operates on behalf of everything else … (find it here)

For it is the small things, our moment-to-moment choices that loom large in how we experience our world, our personal satisfaction or lack thereof. And it’s those same things that are our contributions – for better or worse – to the future we are creating by those very choices.

Let’s choose love!

Art of the Inner Tree

Pivot to Gentle, Curious, Adventurous Perception

The Flow in Nature Reflects the Flow of Life

The way you look at things is the most powerful force in shaping your life. In a vital sense, perception is reality. … There is such an intimate connection between the way we look at things and what we actually discover. If you can learn to look at your self and your life in a gentle, creative and adventurous way, you will be eternally surprised at what you find. John O’Donohue (Thoughts Are Our Inner Senses in Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World)

Life has a way of presenting us with opportunities when we are open to receiving. I aim each day to live in that openness and curiosity. Waking this morning with fresh awareness of two seemingly unrelated dream fragments, I wondered how they might relate to each other and what messages the dreams offered.

On top of them, Mind recalled a choice that I’d taken with me to sleep: which of two events scheduled at the same time should I attend? Then Mind leapt to analyzing, comparing the two, apparently seeking a rational decision to put the question to rest now even though the events are a few days away.

Feeling tense and pressured (self-imposed to be sure), I paused. That wasn’t how I wanted to make the choice. In the pause, a gentle suggestion rose, “Ask for guidance.” Ahh … I relaxed, pivoting to a more curious, gentle perception of the question. Hmm … What is my intention for joining either event? What guidance am I seeking?

Muse reminded me that ‘back to basics’ is always a good place to start. As I sat quietly, clarity began to emerge. I began to wonder, “What is in my highest good and the highest good of all? Which event will best serve my growth and provide opportunities for expressing my values, for building community, and for more closely aligning my life with Gaia?”

The questions as context further eased my angst and the self-imposed pressure to decide now. They give me clarity for the guidance I’m seeking and opened me to receive that guidance. They offered a gentle path to making the choice and offered an opportunity to be creative in doing so.

I realized that I could let go of ‘missing out’ on something and open to the gifts I’m sure to receive whichever event I choose to attend. That’s the beauty of our thoughts; of allowing them to emerge, to develop, to shift; and to being gentle with self and all that creation presents.

The process unfolded in a short time, but the reminder of the importance of thoughts, awareness, and perspective will stay with me far beyond the making of this choice. May I be continually surprised by where my thoughts lead and the adventures they offer up.

Morning Clouds

Breaking Out of Habits

Dawn in the Sacred Sangres

The mystery and magic of being an individual is to live life in response to the deep call within, the call to become who we were dreamed to be. … Freedom … is the poise of soul at one with a life which honours and engages its creative possibility. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

Sitting out on the deck as the day began to dawn and walking before the sun rose over the sacred peaks of the Sangres, I broke free of the habitual winter routine this day. It’s transition time here. Pots of geraniums that spent their winter indoors called to move to their summer homes outdoors. Flannel sheets and blankets give way to cooler crisp organic cotton.

I feel deeply the creative possibility in small things: hands in the dirt, listening to birdsong call the day into being, care of Zadie Byrd, care of self, care of and reverence for this place. Listening for and imagining new stories for how life – mine and ours – can unfold. Allowing life to define itself and its facets rather than fitting life into an old story heard throughout my life as the way things are and the way things should be.

John O’Donohue’s words remind me of the beauty of being in the question, the mystery. Listening for  calls from within. Noticing what has my attention, what resonates, what doesn’t. Breaking habits of knowing and needing to know to allow wonder about how the mystery will unfold. Breaking habits of judgement to allow curiosity to discover a possibility for reverence and care.

After a long day with my hands in the dirt, I settled in last evening for a second listening to a recent Charles Eisenstein talk, Staying Sane in the Next Five Years [click here to watch]. I appreciate his thinking, his way of being, his kindred contrarian spirit, especially in this time when, for me, old stories are giving way, dissolving. New stories are on the rise.

The old stories based on half-truths and lies have become so dissonate in me/for me that I can barely follow them. Eisenstein calls this a time between stories. What we need in times of such transition is rest, care, attention to the call within, to what wants to rise, to mystery. We need time to grieve what seems lost so that we can hear clearly what wants to rise and what our part in that rising is. We need to break habits that tie us to the old. We need to let go. We need to call on grace.

And when we do, what new stories can rise? I envision new stories based on ancient truths of who we are, who we BE as humans in the web of life on this precious planet, a mere dot in the vast cosmos. Stories weaving new threads in existing webs of natural connection. Stories that hold reverence for ALL life. Stories that receive life. Stories that give.

Such stories are by no means a given. Old stories of control over and separation are trying to maintain our attention and will cleverly continue to endeavor to hold us in their grasp. A new coat of paint on an old story is not a new story, despite its fresh look.

So, this time between stories offers choices to each of us, individually and collectively. What habits must be laid to rest so that authentic new stories, new ways will rise? What stories will rise in us? What timelines will we follow? The answer my friends is in embracing the mystery of life unfolding! Are you in?

Dawn Over the San Luis Valley

Treasuring Contradiction and Paradox

Springtime Snow - A Contradiction???

We need to rediscover contradiction as a creative force within the soul. … …to have greater patience with our sense of inner contradiction in order to allow its different dimensions to come into conversation within us. There is a secret light and vital energy in contradiction. John O’Donohue (Contradictions as treasures in Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World)

What do you notice about contradiction and paradox? Contradictions in the world? Contradictions between you and that world? Contradictions within? Do you/how do you value these contradictions? Could they be gifts, although perhaps in disguise?

Snow has fallen several times since the calendar announced the arrival of Spring. I wonder if ‘Springtime snow’ is a contradiction and what it may be telling us.

A somewhat startling contradiction in the world caught my attention this week: a letter signed by over 1000 folks involved in the development of artificial intelligence demanding a pause in AI development to identify and address AI’s risks to humanity. At the same time and in seeming contradiction to their demand, signers and companies with which they are associated apparently continue their profit-driven, competitive push to develop AI technology (at least I’ve seen no announcements or stories reporting such a pause).

I’ve long been curious about paradox, and I’ve probably mentioned being dubbed with the nickname ‘pet paradox’ by friends in college. Back then I’m sure I engaged in paradoxical behavior, though only a few witnesses remain who could verify. It was also during this time that I recall declaring that ‘living with and navigating paradox’ would be an increasingly important skill in living with the increasing complexities of life in the future.

Believing that to be quite true today, I was immediately drawn in as I began reading O’Donohue’s essay. His words resonate deep inside in a way that they couldn’t have back in my college days (heck, he didn’t even write them until 30 years ago, two plus decades after my college years). Today I sense that he is pointing to a skill that we need to rekindle in these days of contradiction, controversy, complexity.

For surely as we are more willing and better able to allow and nurture contradictions within, our capacity to be more coherent, more aligned with our values will expand and the skill that we bring to listening, to considering, and to collaboration with others will deepen.

Indeed, as we nurture contradiction, allowing in with care and acknowledgement negative and/or opposing ideas, thoughts, experiences, memories, our choices and our values are likely to become clearer.

In my own life I grapple with contradictions that rise between my desire for comfort and ease and my deep care for Mother Earth and her well-being; for my culturally supported need for financial security as the world defines it and that same care for the Earth and for my fellow human beings.

Such grappling challenges me to examine my beliefs about the nature of life, of Universal law, the true source of security, and such. Gradually, step-by-step, my understanding grows, and I pivot, discovering pathways that honor care and hold the potential, dare I say the probability, of the comfort, ease, security that I desire. In some strange way, my willingness to grapple in the muck of contradiction, leads me to plateaus of peace.

Muse says that about now you may be asking ‘what the heck does this have to do with AI and pausing AI development?’. Or with any other seemingly unstoppable train that truly needs to be examined (I’m sure we can all name a few!)?

Most always, pivots require a pause. Even the sun pauses for a few days as it makes its Solstice pivots. In our pauses, individually and collectively, rests the time, the energy, direction, and the possibility for inviting contradictions to rise and be acknowledged. In the pause is the opportunity to see contradictions with greater light, clarity, and wholeness. And, perhaps, to look beyond the drivers of competition, winning, and profit. In the pause is the opportunity to treasure contradictions and then to choose differently.

Morning View Through the Trees

Imagining a New Reality

Winter Vistas …

You represent and unknown world that begs you to bring it to voice. … The imagination is committed to the justice of wholeness. … Imagination is the most reverent mirror of the inner world. John O’ Donohue (The Body is Your Only Home in Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World

Once again, I’m challenged to settle in and focus attention, to put pen to paper, words to paragraphs on the page. O’Donohue’s words draw me deep within as they invite me to bring voice to the world I alone represent.

Winter’s gifts of soul time and precious solitude are giving way to a spectrum of activity that ranges from the mundane of tax preparation and heater repair to the magical, mystical realms of imagination. Winter’s embrace nurtures the later, holding seeded ideas until their time to sprout. The world I give voice to seems scattered, unformed like a bonus seed packet of ‘surprises’.

As the first shoots of green are breaking through the soil, I’m in awe of their response to some inner voice that knows and guides: Now! This is the time. These plant beings are tuned into the greater energy force field of our planet home. They listen. They know. They ebb and flow, go dormant then grow in tune with rhythms lost to most of us in our culture as we attend to the outer world more than the inner.

It is these greater rhythms that I am drawn to tune into more deeply in this phase of life. Observing them sparks something inside, a seed gone dormant long ago perhaps, and expands my capacity to imagine and contribute to a world far different from what we label ‘reality’ today.

This week I found myself returning to the childlike nature I remember as a toddler growing up in the country and breaking the bounds of home to head to the pasture and commune with the cows. Oh how I wish I could remember cow wisdom. The family canine, Sweetheart, a Lassie-like Collie, came along and would nudge me homeward before our escape became a worry to parents whose ‘reality’ was vastly different than mine.

I walked these woods with what of that nature I could muster and I ‘heard’ and ‘saw’ the land in new ways that don’t yet have words. A felt sense of deeper connection, more confidence in my capacity to sense the land’s needs as well as its sacredness.

The labyrinth is guiding some gentle adjustments and inspiring creations to strengthen the energetic flow and the contribution of this land to the greater whole – community, continent, Gaia, and beyond.

I feel as if I’m writing a dream. The ‘adult’ me wondering ‘will this make sense?’. The childlike me inviting you to come play on the playground of creating our world anew.

Listening to and holding sacred this vortex of energy in the woods out back

Spiraling Kindness

Cool Hand Luke Skywalker (2008-Aug 1, 2019) in the Labyrinth

Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty. Anne Herbert

Kindness is top of mind and heart this blustery, snowy morning in the sacred Sangre de Cristo mountains. I’ve been spiraling through numerous thoughts and stories about kindness since last evening. Muse seeming to go happily along wherever the journey leads, including sidetracking to talk briefly with a visiting friend. ‘Hey, we could even simply share random quotes about kindness …’, Muse suggests.

Oh Muse, I like that. The day moving from wind and clouds to sun back to more clouds to blowing snow seems random in a way. This day I notice my own thoughts and energy following that pattern.

That individually and collectively our world would benefit from more expressions of kindness is so obvious that I wonder why the words land on the page. ‘Reminders,’ offers Muse. ‘Everyone needs a reminder from time to time,’ adding ‘and, intention. What if kindness was intentional not simply random?’

Hmm…, seeds of kindness spread randomly with intention. How might that spiral through our lives, our world, our planet home? The idea aligns with, perhaps flows from, seeds planted earlier this week, acknowledging a new moon cycle on Monday. Walking the labyrinth with the intention of planting seeds of peace, love, joy, I found the varieties of seeds growing as I walked and gently chanted. Each time I chanted ‘peace, love, joy’ a new seed presented itself to be added to the mix: courage, gratitude, curiosity, laughter, and kindness among them.

I felt myself planting these seeds anew in the garden of my heart, in the spirit of these woods, and in the consciousness of the fields of activity where I put attention. Today intentional kindness seems to be rising to the top of where I’m guided to focus my choices, my deeds.

That’s not surprising as this week I’ve experienced two seemingly random stories of kindness that loom large in my awareness. It seems not so random that each touched my heart and has stayed with me. One was a friend’s beautiful story about rescuing a turtle that was on a heavily travelled road and a later encounter with the person whose pet that turtle is. The depth of my friend’s kindness didn’t surprise me, rather it served as a beautiful example of the magic that flows when we follow guidance as we receive it.

There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides everywhere, often in the places we least expect. The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. John O’Donohue

Kindness in the midst of heavy traffic. No question that would serve humanity well.

My second powerful encounter with kindness brought home how we simply don’t know how our kindness will land, the impact it will have. In this case it was my own, a choice in 2010 to open my home to a young canine, Cool Hand Luke Skywalker. If you’ve been reading for a while, Luke was sometimes front and center of a weekly Zone or Pivot post. For me he was that kind of teacher. He crossed the rainbow bridge in 2019, but often seems present as I walk through life. While I knew that he was beloved by all who met him, this week, another friend’s story of her encounters with Luke Skywalker first while he was still a vibrant physical presence in my home and later when she encountered him in service to others in the etheric realm, poignantly reminded me that all our choices seed the future. Not just our individual future, but our futures collectively.

With every choice me make, with every thought we think, with every word we speak WE are seeding the future. This is our power.

The steps we take now make new earth grow beneath our feet. The steps we take now decide what kind of earth that will be. In every moment we have the choice to find the fight or to make delight. We have power. Anne Herbert & Margaret Paloma Pavel (Random Acts of Kindness & Senseless Beauty)

As I’ve reflected on kindness since hearing these stories, it seems clear to me that intention supports us in touching the kindness that dwells deep within, a natural part of our design and our being. While most, if not all of us, would never intend to be unkind, do we intend to express kindness in life? Do I?

Be kind. Be connected. Be unafraid. Rivera Sun

Let’s spiral kindness randomly, intentionally, individually, collectively in all that we do. I’m intending a world of kindness. What about you?

P.S. Did you know that February 17 is Random Acts of Kindness Day every year? A little late this year, but already on my calendar for 2024!