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Happy holidays, happy thanksgiving, merry Christmas, Happy New Year, have a good weekend, have a good day, it’s all good, etc.

We’re really setting ourselves up. Candidly none of us are up to the task of faking all that happiness and goodness. Yet, we all pretend and think we’re the only ones who are; sad, angry, afraid, lonely, jealous, selfish or a host of other things we don’t want to be and or don’t want to feel.

Here’s the thing about this. Pain is inevitable, some suffering is inevitable, much of our suffering is caused by our efforts to avoid pain and suffering.

Yes, avoidance causes most our suffering. And most of us have become really talented, often by practicing for decades, at avoiding pain and adding to our suffering, actually piling on, thinking we’re helping ourselves or others.

Being kind to ourselves is often the hardest and most important first step. Being kind to ourselves begins to align us with Love from beyond yet within bringing us a deep knowing that; we are welcome, we are held, we are enough, we are home. Allow yourself to be kind to you and you will more deeply understand the Love which is here for you, me, each of us, all of us.

It happened again the other day but I watched it happen, within me, without warning. The correction came from outside me, the reaction within me was clear and immediate, “it wasn’t me, who can and should be blamed”.

So as I watched this inner reaction coming up, I simply said, “I’ll take a look and see what I can do to fix it.” Thankfully, I noticed my inner-over-reaction and my inner desire to not be at fault.

I share this story as a reminder of our humanness, our desire to overcome it, and what I’m coming to accept. We continue to wake up each day, hoping to be ‘better’ and yet, we’re still human. Turns out, it’s okay. We don’t have to turn everything into a self improvement process.

I’m not suggesting we don’t try to be better.

Rather, I’m suggesting that our desire to be better is both endearing and often, mis-informed by our view of our own history and our aspirational view of who we might become someday. We must take into account our humanness, and thus our vulnerability and neediness to ensure we can be kind to ourselves on the journey.

It may well be the toughest thing we do in life to accept what we are, warts and all. But as we do, as I do, it seems, Love is emerging and guiding in some amazing ways.

Consider the power in being

Don’t try to talk about it

Your thoughts on the matter, an obstacle, 

Your words a tangle. 

Return to your breath…

Again.

Being is at once freeing and fear inducing  

Breathe and be. 

Allow yourself to be breathed and Be

Your human says just say it or do it

Take one more breath

Is it time?

Be a little longer if you’re able?

Gently and kindly noticing your human doing co-opting being.

Your Soul knows being is where you are,

Where Presence may rendezvous with life.

You set out to seek yet you’ll never find

What you already have. 

Just use the color you’re told to.

You’ll see the Truth and feel the Presence.

A better color you think?

Embrace the wisdom alongside you.

Wisdom accepts itself as student,

Unwittingly, the Teacher emerges.

Love’s Presence with you. 

Within and alongside you, always. 

The power in Being.

As we listen for our inner voices, we are often challenged by not only their call but often the paradox of each. In this blog, we will continue to look for more inner spaciousness (spiritual perspective), in order to better recognize the Divine within and around us. Consider the voice or voices of Love within you. Each one introduces a paradox into our lives. As you consider the voice of Compassion, consider the following:

Compassion:

When did you (or do you) notice compassion toward another? Toward yourself?

How does the way you think, feel, act, or speak
influence compassion? Conversely, how does compassion influence the way you think, feel, act, or speak?

As you explore compassion within, what feelings, sensations, images, memories, stories, scriptures, etc., do you notice?

How would you describe your relationship with compassion?

When you consider compassion, what person comes to mind for you?

What paradox(es) does compassion invite or demand you to hold in your life?

What does compassion teach you about the presence of the Divine within and around you?

Optional: consider Justice, Judgement, Love or other values important to you, utilizing the questions from above. Notice how it might sound good to live out of our Compassionate heart but in fact, it can be difficult with the other inner voices and conflicts going on.

Considering what you’ve discovered within, what is your prayer for yourself and others?

As storms come, a feeling, some sense.
Weather is shared.
Why trouble, why worry, go inside. 
Find shelter and wait. 
Even the most violent storms pass
Some in the blink of an eye.

At times, we walk into the front,
Like the water buffalo.
Other times, we wait quietly inside,
Wondering when the storm will pass

And it does eventually
Sometimes without lasting damage.
But damage and injury none the less. 
At times, the wounds need to be addressed.

The weather always brings change
One can never be the same again,
The prideful try to create better weather,
Modern wannabe rains dancers. 
The fearful try to get back to normal. 
As if anything ever was, or will be, normal. 

Be here now.