In March, I invited you to be discerning about how you were nourishing yourself. The questions I posed then are perhaps even more relevant today:
What are you listening to?
What are you taking in to your innermost being?
What are you believing? Fearing? Reacting to?
What are you trusting?
How are you responding?
Please pause now to listen for your answers.
I ask again, how are you? Perhaps, like me, you have experienced some of these: confusion, sadness, frustration, loneliness, anger, connection, love, simplicity, joy. Maybe you have been close to someone who got sick – perhaps even died, alone. If that is so, I am sorry. So sorry. Maybe you’ve been a front-line worker or been deemed “essential” and you just keep going through it all. To you I offer my deepest, most sincere thanks.
Maybe what has you unsettled is the impact of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests. Or perhaps it is your own growing awareness of the pain human beings inflict on other human beings. Maybe even a growing awareness of the pain that you inflict on others in thought, word and deed.
Possibly, you have experienced a personal trauma totally unrelated to current events. If so, I hope you have the support you need to move through to the other side. If not, who can you ask? And what is it you most need from them?
Me?
Sometimes it is overwhelm and a feeling of helplessness that is most present. That is, until I remember each of you who is hurting for any of the reasons above (or anything else for that matter). Sure, I have struggled with the changes that the pandemic has brought upon me and my loved ones. And I have struggled to listen, learn and tend to what is mine to do with the life energy and blessings that are mine in this time of intense unrest in our country and this world we share. At times my body has practiced its well-learned depression response. But, with awareness of good health, a loving husband and family, a home and financial security, deep and abiding friendships, trust in a power greater than myself, and a daily gratitude practice, many of my struggles dissolve into nothingness.
Wherever we find ourselves along the spectrum from barely coping to thriving and grateful, we can ask those questions above. If we listen carefully, we just may hear a still, small voice from within or a powerful message from somewhere outside that has the next bit of guidance we need. Perhaps we hear:
Slow down.
Talk less. Listen more.
Consume less.
Take one small action.
Love yourself.
Tell another what you love about them.
Express your gratitude.
Call your Mom.
Learn the truth about “it” from experts.
Thank you. I wish you peace. I wish you hope. I wish for you to know without a doubt that you are loved.