
Whole.
Steady.
Relaxed.
Desiring.
Creative.
Joyful.
Confident.
Protected.
Assured.
Loving.
Receiving.
Humble.
Gentle.
Clear.
Consistent.
Allowing.
Steady.
Wise.
Open.
Graceful.
Free.

Whole.
Steady.
Relaxed.
Desiring.
Creative.
Joyful.
Confident.
Protected.
Assured.
Loving.
Receiving.
Humble.
Gentle.
Clear.
Consistent.
Allowing.
Steady.
Wise.
Open.
Graceful.
Free.

I am so powerful that I can command my own suffering to inform change.
I am so creative that I can find solutions to the underlying mysteries of my experiences.
I am so brave that I can step into my full consciousness and awareness with grace.
I am so smart that I can turn to love, kindness, and joy at any moment,
cultivating it within and inspiring it around me,
even in a world focused on being something else.

The light turns green.
Out of the depot pours the continuous stream of yellow-orange pods.
They move like ants,
single file at first,
jockeying for the lead,
then dispersing.
Like homing pigeons
with seemingly choreographed maneuvers,
they dance across the dashed lines and in between the rows of trees.
They scurry off to their destinations,
one single mission,
primed to transport their precious cargo,
conveyors of potentiality.

Pain provides an opportunity to turn towards lessons and lessening or to adopt as a wounded state as a part of identity.
For sure, the wave of wound on the heels of pain can feel logical and essential. It may perhaps be needed in order to make a choice. The wound from pain can be like a riptide that is easy to get caught in…that can provide great struggle and even the potential to drown.
However, to ride that current, perhaps even begin to understand it’s make up and direction and feel more fully into it just briefly, produces the wisdom to release the struggle and be propelled to its edges by its own force.
Without resistance, the riptide has nothing to hold onto and pushes away what it cannot drag down.
In due time, the churning and swirling when met with curiosity, tenderness, and patience has the capacity to deliver an object once more to calm and safe waters.
It is in returning to this calm space where wisdom is found…the pain lessened and the wound converted to a lesson.
While woundnedness perpetuates a perceived lack of safety imposed externally, wisdom reinforces the notion that safety is created in the choice to experience but not drown in the wound.
While ideally the sea of life hopes to offer smooth, calm, clear waters, it also aspires to shape future landscapes and to never remain the same, retaining unintentially in its purpose the potential for pain.
And in this way, there lie endless opportunities to ride or resist, to learn or succumb.

Today I want to be a tree,
providing steadiness and sturdiness in the world,
receiving assuredness and ease,
knowing precisely where I stand.
Anchored in the strength of the earth.
Expanding gently, respectfully and gratefully into the air and space of others.
I want to be a source of clearing of thoughts,
feelings,
worries,
suffering,
not absorbing it as my own,
simply removing the impurities and toxins.
I want to breathe in and receive
the light
the water
the nourishment of family and friends
the success of work
the richness of creation.
to feel my beautiful roots and my capacity to grow endlessly upward and outward.
I embrace the simultaneously simple and complex nature of me
Inviting gratitude and joy as my guides
Growing ever stronger and steadier in who I am
and how I show up in the world.

On the other side of the door
Is a bright spacious light
Guiding me into confidence,
Inviting my voice to be heard,
My gifts to be shared.
I replace worry with curiosity,
Hunger with satiation,
Hope with appreciation,
And old patterns and beliefs
With the great, beautiful unknown.
Flashes of doubt and distractions hold me back, producing a veiled illusion that I’m not ready.
I was born ready.
I am here to be curious.
I am here to expand,
To learn
To grow
To create again and again,
To step more and more into me.
The hinges are well-greased,
There are no locks.
Softly I focus my gaze,
Clear my throat,
Open my heart,
And turn the knob.

When I am afraid, I just need to pause.
When I am tired, I just need to soften.
When in doubt, I open my hands and stretch my fingers to let go of the burdens I am carrying.
It’s time to release the bags full of insecurity, judgment, and uncertainty,
to relieve that heavy weight off my shoulders,
unlock my hips, knees and feet
and walk confidently into the less than clear,
the less than perfect,
the unknown.
I will be patient with myself and with others.
In that patience I will grow confidence.
I will seek compassionate words that promote truth to foster ease, healing, and happiness in myself and others.
I will not need approval,
and in fact,
I will revel in my stumbling.
I will cultivate pauses to inquire,
and to see the unknown
not as daunting,
but as freeing.
The only thing I will hold onto
is the hand of the little child within me.
Seeking love and assurance from within,
I will open my hands, spread my fingers and let everything else go.
I will no longer grasp limitations that hinder my ability to see and be grateful,
that mask the abundance before me,
the joy within me,
my capacity for unconditional peace and love,
and my ability to know in the unknown.

We are wired for connection…to thrive these connections must be established, mended, and maintained.
To Establish requires the courage to welcome something new and possibly quite uncomfortable.
To Mend calls upon our capacity to heal hurts and embrace the pains of growing.
To Maintain is the essence of flexibility and fortitude.
We watch and encourage the healing of the wounded body – its powerful transformation and rebirth, over and over again, ever celebrating its capacity to establish, mend, and maintain.
If only the heart and mind were afforded such a generous space of repair and connection.

Why is it when I step out of my suffering, I am uncomfortable with the suffering of others?
Guilt arises at the feeling that I am free of pain somehow at their expense.
It is difficult to exercise compassion for the suffering of another when I hold no compassion for myself and the value of feeling pain free.
Compassion wrapped in guilt results in creating a false story in order to take on someone else’s.
True empathy is understanding suffering, holding a space of great strength and courage – enough for both of us – rising from my own pain and rising even higher from my own joy and knowing that by maintaining my balance, finesse, and freedom I offer more room for healing than by falsely taking on the suffering of others.
Compassion without guilt provides a clear path to alleviate suffering.
Compassion filled with joy brings independence, hope and healing.
Compassion is powerful.
Guilt smothering.
Empathy delicately empowering.

Oh, to be in a state of body and mind in which I am
wholly connected to my inner radiance,
my vitality,
my strength,
my wholeness,
my joy,
in such an unconditional way that I interact with the world
with such grace, vibrancy, and connection
that I glow and flow
in all that I am.
Soft and focused,
Clear and free,
Confident and humble,
Knowing and speaking universal truth,
that I am
Powerfully chill.