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

From Insisting to Inviting

Full, Super, Blue Moonset

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

The morning after last week’s full, super, blue moon dawned beautifully. Clear sky; still, crisp air. Moon hanging in the western sky on its way to meet the horizon. I headed out for a long, solo walk before Zadie Byrd woke.

Returning home, she was awake, curious as to the whereabouts of her human, and ready to go out for ‘her’ morning walk. I was ready for canine company and wanted to watch Moon meet the western horizon. With Zadie harnessed up we headed down the road in that direction at her slow, morning- sniffing pace. A short distance down the road, sniffing needs satisfied and morning ‘business’ complete, she stopped, stiffened her body and looked at me with her ‘I’m done. Let’s go home’ eyes.

Not knowing whether she’s in pain or perhaps sensing danger ahead, when this occurs I generally follow Zadie’s lead. Sometimes though I insist, sternly saying ‘we’re going this way’ or gently pulling her leash, cajoling with treats and a silly running game to test her movement and energy.

This day, catching myself before I began to insist, I paused. I looked at the moon and took a deep breath. What would forcing accomplish given the peace I felt from walking under this stunning moon? Was I willing to pay the price of the deep peace I was feeling to have my way?

No.

I engaged in a different approach. Dropping the leash, I continued walking several steps and invited ‘Zades’ to ‘come’ join me.

At first, she seemed a bit perplexed being beyond the length of the leash from me. Then she came looking somewhat curious. ‘What is my human up to now?’ she was perhaps wondering. As she caught on, supported by tasty rewards and lots of praise, we sauntered to the end of our road, overlooking the vast valley and San Juan mountains and I watched as the horizon at long last greeted the moon, Zadie Byrd happily sniffing nearby. We were both satisfied, and it was time to return home.

Reflecting on the experience later, I was present to the open heartedness of a genuine invitation and how my heart tightens when I insist.

Insisting holds little, if any, difference than demanding and forcing, acts that have no regard for another. They leave no room for choice, and when I engage in that way, leave me feeling heavy and glum. Insisting is an act of mind, not heart; of ego, not spirit; of force, not power.

Inviting, engaging another being in the process and offering choice, is an act of the heart. It reflects an inner power that has no need to force others. Inviting is an act of spirit.

Once again, canine companion Zadie Byrd carries the mantle of wise teacher, offering up opportunities for me to pause, to pivot, to learn, to grow. Inviting me to the field where she lives.

Zadie Byrd’s Off Leash Experience Continues

Blessed Solstice!

In the quiet darkness of this Solstice time may you experience

A sense of deepening.

A sense of knowing.

A sense of deep satisfaction.

Your Wisdom.

May you know Peace.

Peace within.

Peace without.

Peace with ALL.

May you be Peace.

A World of Peace. A World of Gratitude. A World of Harmony.

Grateful for the Peace and Harmony of Mountain Mornings

It’s up to us to create the more beautiful world we want to live in.

The today is the International Day of Peace established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Today is also World Gratitude Day, an idea birthed at a Thanksgiving Day dinner in the meditation room of the United Nations building (yes, there is a meditation room in the place where world leaders and representatives gather) by Spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy suggesting that there be a day of thanks the whole world could celebrate together. And today is the eve of the Autumnal Equinox.

A trifecta of opportunity to be grateful and express our gratitude, to create peace within and be that peace as we walk in the world, and to consider what this day of balance when light and dark are equal holds as summer fades and autumn steps forth. A day to consider that it is ‘we’, individually and collectively, who are creating the future and to reflect upon our vision for that more beautiful world.

It’s cloudy here as I wake before dawn, the waning crescent moon visible for a moment as clouds move about. Fall is in the air. Crisp mornings. The first hint of changing leaves a appears high in the mountain aspen groves, the promise of that beauty soon to behold and a signal to begin in earnest preparing for winter.

Muse smiles, sensing my urge to ‘get going’, a smile that gently reminds me of how I want to walk this labyrinth of life: at peace in a world of peace, with awareness and expression of a grateful heart, in harmony with all of life.

I hold this not as a goal to achieve, but as a contribution to, as Charles Eisenstein says, “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

And so, I’m drawn to acknowledge and share days and events such as this that can grow to become wholly days for all of humanity. Days for recognition and for reset. Acknowledging the potentiality in each of us for peace, gratitude, harmony. Adjusting course to align with that potentiality. Each in our way for there is no ‘one size fits all’ formal that so many desperately try to find or create. Everyone has their story; we are all different, we are all the same.

As I go about the tasks of this day, I do so with awareness that days like this offer up the opportunity to heal separation and become whole, indeed, to live into the wholeness that is the truth of this world and the world beyond. Having experience the power of gratitude up close and personal over many years as a part of my personal practices, I’ll be watching the world premiere of Louie Schwartzberg’s new film Gratitude Revealed with a grateful heart and vision of all that IS possible in our world.

How will celebrate the wholly holiness of this day?

And Abundant Pine Nuts to Harvest

From Solution to Creation

July 16,1945 - First Test of the Atomic Bomb

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein

 Most everyone reading these words is familiar with this Einstein quote. We use it to remind ourselves (and, yes, sometimes others) of the need to change our thinking in order to evoke a different present and future. But what if those weren’t Einstein’s actual words? What if over the years his words have been massaged, shifted, and he actually said something much more powerful?

 Curious about the context of the familiar quote, I did a quick search and discovered the apparent origin: a fundraising campaign (more here).

by a group of concerned atomic scientists who had been a part of developing the atom bomb. In 1946, some months after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9 1945 – yes, we are coming upon the 77th anniversary of those tragic, fateful days), Einstein co-founded the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons and to promote world peace. (Muse suggests I let you know we aren’t intending a history lesson this week 😉, but context is sometimes everything.)

 Einstein and the Committee wrote:

 We need two hundred thousand dollars at once for a nation-wide campaign to let the people know that a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.

Oh, they were talking about something bigger than just changing our thinking about the mundane issues that crop up during the day. They were suggesting a bigger pivot, a shift in consciousness as suggested by another Einstein quote:

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

The scientists were in fact creating!

I’ve been wondering whether the pivot suggested in these quotes is about making a shift from our cultural tendency/habit of problem solving to creating. Muse has fed my wondering since the question popped up in a recent conversation with a friend. I was sharing some ideas and learning that I was exploring, many of them from a class I’m attending. “So, what is her solution?” asked my friend.

The question startled me a bit and I don’t recall my response. It may have been some incoherent babble (Muse invokes a chuckle of agreement at that possibility). My friend’s question stayed with me.

In reflecting later, I realized that in most of life I see opportunities to create rather than problems to solve. I read and listen to podcasts, classes, etc. not to solve, but to expand my capacity to create. This wasn’t always my way, my perspective. For many years (okay, decades!) I approached life as a series of problems to be solved. Whether it was situations in my own life or bigger world issues, most everything was a problem that needed solutions.

Noting the difference this shift has made in my life, I think such a pivot may have been what Einstein intended with his words: to shift from searching for solutions to creating anew and co-creating with creation itself. In short, to shift our consciousness.

What does such a shift offer? There is light and lightness in creating and co-creating that engages heart and soul. Creating allows (rather than trying to control) and is curious about the seen and the unseen. It wonders ‘what wants to rise?’.

Solving mostly engages the mind and is often aimed at control. As I look out at our world that generally holds problem solving as its preferred path, I think it’s time to pivot to a new way: creation and collaboration with Life.

Surely the howl of coyote this early morning as I write these words suggests ‘hey humans, look to Nature and all that Nature creates.’ Muse smiles. I wonder if our preoccupation with problems is some sort of cosmic joke. But I digress …

I’m not suggesting that ‘mind’ has no place in the way forward – individually and collectively. Au Contraire!  Mind’s gifts are integral to creation, to engaging heart and soul. Imagine the beautiful world we will create collectively in making this fundamental shift, integrating the gifts of heart, mind, and soul. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine. Then take these words from John O’Donohue into your day …

Beauty inhabits the cutting edge of creativity – mediating between the known and the unknown, light and darkness, masculine and feminine, visible and invisible, chaos and meaning, sound and silence, self and others. John O’Donohue (The Soul as Twilight Threshold in Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Nature Creates!

Sacred Paths, Places and Peace

Meditation Corner

Fresh is the morning

Clear is the sky

Shiny are the rocks

Against the moist, dark Earth

Rain last evening helped quench the thirst of the soil and all who dwell in these woods. A morning after rain feels like an especially fresh start, much like a good, deep sleep when I’ve gone to bed weary. Rain and rest are balms for the soul quenching some of her longings.

Raucous raven’s cawing is dawn’s first sound as I settle in with Muse wondering where our journey will lead this morn. What wants to be revealed? Shared?

Much is stirring within and without, close to home and afar that warrants attention, reflection, care. Here at home new plants are thriving, feeding my spirit with joy as I gaze at the cheerful blooms and soft greenery with a heart full of gratitude. Afar, out there in the world, the new is being built on multiple and diverse fronts by visionaries, lovers of Earth and ALL her creatures, entrepreneurs, and others who know we must change and whose souls call forth life enhancing ways to do so: agriculture, food systems, health, energy, transportation, economies, and more. Activists are tracking and responding to what I pray are last ditch efforts to control rather than to nourish the dream of freedom and justice for ALL and the free will which we have been granted. They too are focused on multiple important fronts.

Their work inspires me. I cheer them on and lend support as opportunities to do so rise.

The last words I read yesterday evening weave with the practical wisdom of Pace e Bene’s daily inspiration several days ago:

At its heart, the journey of each life is a pilgrimage through unforeseen sacred places that enlarge and enrich the soul. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

and

If peace is what every government says it seeks and peace is the yearning of every heart, why aren’t we teaching it in schools? Colman McCarthy

Seemingly disparate at first read, Muse nudged me to read again, deeply. The Irish poet and the journalist each speak to our path and to paths forward. They point to paths in need of nurturing, focus, love, care. Paths that are sacred, as the journey to peace is a journey of each and all souls. Why aren’t we teaching peace? Why isn’t there a Department of Peace in each and every government from local to global?

The fearmongering of a crumbling world that is desperately trying to hang on to power and control will not stand as one by one, community by community, step by step, moment to moment we choose to recognize life’s sacredness and attend to learning, teaching, and practicing peace within and without all along the way.

The world’s woes are but reflections of darkness and pain calling out for light and healing. What world is calling to be created as we cultivate and nurture the light in our souls?

These are the musings that rise from my deep longing for a world where my stepson doesn’t feel the need to let me know that he and his family were not at the parade where a mass shooting occurred. A world where all children are safe, nurtured, nourished. Indeed, where all of us are safe, nurtured, nourished. A world where freedom and justice are the foundations of our way of life.

May we hold the challenges of this time as sacred places on our journey that enlarge and enrich our souls. May I?

Mountain Morning Mist

Pivot to Re-Ordering Life

Elk Herd in the Neighborhood

The nonviolent person does not seek an impossible compromise with the times, nor a prior, intemperate synthesis for the times. The nonviolent person sees life in terms of a choice toward change, involving a re-ordering of life. Daniel Berrigan

This quote popped into my box (thank you once again Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service for your Daily Inspiration!). It seems apropos for this time of war – yet another war that makes no sense. War has never been the answer. It never will.

I’ve been thinking about borders. How is that we humans are so preoccupied with borders? What in our story of separation has us believe that they are real? On some level we know they are not, but borders and ‘we/they’ have been ingrained in us as important to our identity. What if we reframe our identity to Earthlings? Gaians? Heck, even Humans!

Early this morning Zadie Byrd and I make the 60-mile journey to the vet (her eye irritation hasn’t eased since surgery two weeks ago). We crossed the Rio Grande River at a point that was once the western boundary of the Republic of Texas, reminding me that borders are mutable. Countries come. Countries go. I wonder what quality of life we could create if we gave up the idea of maintaining and expanding borders. Of pivoting from the constraints of borders and defending them to creating community with one another and with Nature.

For surely Nature and the planet do not give one whit about the artificial lines we humans draw on maps and then defend at the cost of unfathomable life, limb, and treasure. Astronauts who have spent time in space speak of a deepened understanding and appreciation that we all share this planet as they look down at ‘home’. How might we take up that perspective?

How might we re-order life around sharing our planet home and its bounty rather than the continuing the historical practice of mine/yours? Win/loose? Bad/good? Haven’t we suffered the trauma of this approach sufficiently to genuinely want to end violence?

How might we re-order life to care for our planet home, shifting the use of our treasure to help her restore from our abuse? What if the trillions of dollars spent on so-called ‘defense’ were re-allocated to support life in all its forms?

While my heart aches for the trauma of all who are in the path of the war in Ukraine, I’m putting my attention not on who will be the victor. For in war, any victory is temporary. Rather I’m asking deeply, how do we re-order life, individually and collectively, to end these cycles of violence? What thinking do I need to shift? What beliefs do I need to challenge? What choices toward change can I make?

If your thinking and sensing is moving in this direction, here are a couple essays that I’ve found helpfully thought-provoking this week:

·        Charles Eisenstein’s The Field of Peace (click here)

·        George Lakey’s article The Dangerous Assumption that Violence Keeps Us Safe (click here)

And, I leave you with these words of wisdom from Thay:  The individual has to wake up to the fact that violence cannot end violence; that only understanding and compassion can neutralize violence, because with the practice of loving speech and compassionate listening we can begin to understand people and help people to remove the wrong perceptions in them, because these wrong perceptions are at the foundation of their anger, their fear, their violence, their hate. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Rocks are different on the west side of the valley …

Life: Opportunity For Love

Heart Rock Love from the Woods Out Back

Through my love for you, I want to express my love for the whole cosmos, the whole of humanity, and all beings. By living with you, I want to learn to love everyone and all species. If I succeed in loving you, I will be able to love everyone and all species on Earth.  . . . This is the real message of love. Thich Nhat Hahn

Muse chuckles and says to let you know that this post isn’t your quick fix guide to romantic love as we approach Valentine’s Day here in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Though its origin and history are somewhat mysterious, my cynic’s view is that it has become yet another day where the opportunity for sincere ritual has been coopted into a capitalistic ritual of buying and consuming. That said, I can love my Fair Trade, Organic chocolate and appreciate all who contribute to putting on the shelves.

Setting aside the cynic, the day offers an opportunity to look more closely at love as a way of being. A way of being that is the underlying requirement for creating a world that turns its back on the culture’s bias toward separation and fear mongering and puts attention on unity, oneness, the whole of which we are each a part.

We don’t tend to think of love as a process or, perhaps more aptly, a learning curve (steep and never ending). We’ve forgotten that love is our essence. Love in its essence is pure and simple, but today we engage in histrionics and fantasy more than in being true to and allowing life to flow from that essence.

We separate good and bad, winning and losing, right and left, right and wrong, ill and healthy, et cetera forgetting that love is the essence in each, indeed love permeates ALL. You, me, us, them, bad, good, … So, despite being our essence love requires experimentation, learning, practice, commitment: the learning curve of life.

Thinking back on a few prickly events this week, I wonder ‘how might I have engaged differently?’ What would Love have done in that instant of beginning to feel the slightest irritation, a crossroads missed as I hurdled toward the path of loveless reaction?

Love would pause, breathe. Love would look both ways before choosing which road to take. Love would offer a reminder that the road of reaction and judgement is barren of love. Having found myself on that dismal alternate route from time to time (indeed more frequently than I’d like), I know its barrenness, its discomfort, its treachery.

I know too that I can create new crossroads and choose different paths, paths of love. I can replace judgement with loving discernment. I can restore trust, knowing that cancelled appointments and unreturned calls are guideposts to change direction. I can remember that ‘everyone has their story … we are all different, we are all the same’. While trusting a positive outcome, I can relax into curiosity about what will be revealed as Zadie Byrd faces a health challenge.

Reflecting on these little blips stirs deeper questions from which new possibilities can emerge as I/we co-create our world: What if I/we practiced love and allowed life rather than resisting and insisting that life be ‘my/our’ way? What if I/we looked at every interaction, every relationship, indeed everything as an opportunity for love? How beautiful will our world be when we can truly be love and embrace love for ALL?

HEARTY Welcome!

Invite All of Life In

Sunlight on the New Blanket of Snow

We are in a time of tremendous volatility, not just externally, but for many people internally as well. On a daily basis, it seems, the world is flipping from one timeline to another to another. The future looks dark; I blink my eyes and all is bright. A blue sky fills with clouds in a minute, then they are gone again. Multiple realities coexist on a single planet. Multiple realities coexist in a single person.

… if you have been fluctuating between elation and despair, you are not alone. If despondency colors the breaking dawn, you are not alone. If a single ray of light (like a warm hello) dispels the despondency, you are not alone. If that hope is so fragile that a mere ill glance shatters it, you are not alone. Charles Eisenstein (read the essay here)

I experienced ‘one of those days’ a few days ago. Feeling disconnected, irritable, unhappy despite a soft white blanket that had fallen on Mother Earth the day before. The foggy funk lifted for a brief moment as I watched Zadie Byrd roll joyfully in the snow. As quickly as she hopped up the dark cloud over me returned. Unlike Zadie’s ability to shake the flakes from her furry coat, my efforts to ‘shake’ the cloud weren’t so effective.

And so I allowed ‘it’ to be and allowed myself to be under ‘it’ with whatever curiosity I could muster to discover any message hidden within. I had little energy to focus or ‘do’ anything, despite several projects and tasks idly awaiting my attention. I’d love to say, ‘so I just sat quietly and listened’, but in my humanness, I tried to force some focus, get something done. Oh, how our culture values toughing it out to check some task off of our to-do list.

Failing culture’s strategy for the blahs, I turned to Nature, the labyrinth and a long, slow saunter in the woods out.

This is where my solace lives. The place where my sadness can be, and my tears can flow with abandon.  The place that is receptive, understanding, and listens as no human can. The place that knows, accepts, and allows. The place that dissipates the dark clouds when it is time for them to go.

I think about the clouds that bring moisture to the Earth’s surface just as clouds of sadness allow my cleansing tears to fall.

Cleansed by Nature’s beauty and softness, her receptivity and acceptance, and by the tears that fell as I embraced a beloved grandmother tree, the dark cloud lifted. I am those clouds, the snow and rain, and I am all the tears as well as all the trees.

I remind myself that we are in a time of great change and uncertainty, of vast opportunity, and of an invitation to invite in all of life. The bitter. The sweet. We are invited to remember what our hearts know, and our minds have forgotten: We are all one, each a part of the other. The entire ocean is in the drop. The bitter in the sweet. There is no separation in the reality that is life.

As the Muse and I settled in for this week’s journey, I thought about the plethora of inspiring quotes that have been shared this week in the wake of Thich Nhat Hanh’s passing. Many have landed deep, resonating as wisdom for this time. Responding to a gentle nudge to find a pithy one to share, I discovered a recording of Thay reading his poignant poem, Please Call Me By My True Names. The poem’s final verses resonate as a prayer for all humanity to understand that we are one.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can wake up,

and so the door of my heart

can be left open,

the door of compassion.

(listen and read it here)

In our sleepy forgetfulness, we cling to the illusion that we can allow some of Life in and keep some of Life out. Alas, we wake and remember that all of Life invites us to open the door of our hearts and invite in ALL of Life. Indeed, may we grant All of Life our gentle embrace.

Beauty Before the Snowfall

Easing into 2022 with Rest

A White Christmas Labyrinth!

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterwards. Proverb

The only real rest comes when you’re alone with God. Rumi

As I began to update what has become my ‘Auld Lang Syne’ final post of the year, the online countdown clock indicated that it’s 2 days, 14 hours, 41 minutes, 56 seconds until the new year is rung in here in the Colorado Rockies. But, hey, ‘who’s counting?’ wonders the Muse.

As was the case at the end of 2020, many – perhaps most – await the turning of the clock to 2022 with bated breath, wishing to bid adieu to another tumultuous year. We want to turn the page. We long to dive deeply into the fresh start that began with the Solstice promise of our personal newness and culminates as we replace our 2021 calendars with new pages of promise and possibility that the coming year has the potential to bring forth.

It is, as always, up to us – individually and collectively – to bring promise, possibility, and potential to fruition. As sure as the sun’s light is returning day by day here in the northern hemisphere, we will have opportunities to do just that in the hours, days, weeks, and months ahead. What if we trusted the opportunities to come forth at just the right divine time rather than pushing to ‘make’ them happen?

While this year held much tragedy and darkness, lights of love continued to be shined in dark corners needing our attention and care.  May we each be a part of shining the light of love in all the days ahead. May we tap into the countless sources of light available beyond the chaos of the mainstream and its ways. May we receive whatever light we need as we add our unique rays to loving constellations of light and life.

Although the onset of a new year signals the end of the holiday season in our culture, Winter has only just begun. The dark, the cold invites me inward (more snow would help the cause!). The Muse smiles a happy, knowing smile. The season that began fewer than 10 days ago has a 12-week run before it gives way to Spring. Yet our cultural habit of a new year is to make plans and spring into action with goals and commitments to DO more.

What if we took more time for rest and renewal as Nature does in the season of cold? Inward to rest, to renew. Inward to commune with the sacred and to gather all that is necessary to burst forth in Spring. While certainly there is life and livelihood to maintain, jobs to go to, businesses to tend, political action to be voiced, stories to be told, I wonder how the world might be if we began the calendar year in greater alignment with Nature?

What might be possible for us individually and collectively if our first goal for the new year was intending rest and renewal of body, mind, and spirit?

As I reflect on saying ‘Goodbye’ and refrain from saying ‘good riddance’, my year end reflections first written at the end of 2016 seem as apropos (with a few additions) today as they did five years ago.

At year end, we tend to look back on joys, sorrows, what we accomplished, where we may have fallen short. Hopefully our review list includes acknowledging all that we discovered about ourselves and learned from the opportunities and events life presented.

As 2021 ends, many will breathe a sigh of relief that it is finally over along with a breath of hope for better days in the year ahead.  The world we live in is chaotic and uncertain. It IS! Those who put attention on that world forgetting that it is the world we live IN, NOT the world we are OF may look ahead with dread or fear.

That need not be.

Within each of us is a seed of understanding who we truly are. Nurturing that seed grows our faith in our capacity to be resilient in the face of the world’s chaos. In this year ahead, I have a sense that we will need to tap into our spiritual strength in ways we may not have done before.

This seed of faith is within us all. It is not faith in anything outside of us. Rather it is faith in who we are, each as an individual, integral part of an intelligent Universe. It is a reminder that life is so much more than we experience and observe in our daily routines.

As you ring in 2022, I invite you to join me in nourishing your seed of faith in each of the 365 days ahead and to remember how important your presence and your ray of light is at this moment on the planet.

With that intention top of mind and heart, I’ll be participating in a global event 7 Days of Rest and Sacred Renewal during the first week of the new year. The event’s introductory words drew me in with their reminder of the power of intention and clarity and the potent possibility that alignment and collective action call forth:

7 Days of Rest is an annual, open co-creative event inviting individuals and groups around the world to initiate and join local and online events for the healing and thriving of Earth and all her inhabitants. During the first 7 Days of 2022, we unite in seeding the New Year with a sacred field of intention and blessing for a thriving world for all of Life.​ Together we co-create a collective space for renewing ourselves and our sacred bonds with each other and with all of Life. Through rest, deep listening, wisdom sharing and compassionate action we amplify the emerging global culture of peace, health, cooperation and wise governance.

I’m deeply grateful for this discovery/resource (the website -click here - is chock full of nourishing offerings daily!) and I’m looking forward to diving in daily with each of the daily themes. Join me in whatever way best fits your schedule, your life, and your intentions for the year ahead.

Happy New Year!

I hope you’ll join me in participating in this global gathering!