 Dear Ones, Last week, I shared a few details about a space of suffering in my life with a friend. As I described some of the feelings attached, and the ways in which I am attempting to navigate them inside the present circumstances, I found myself pulled to also share what was feeling right. She said: “You know the old saying "the only way out is through"? I was just struck by the realization that the only way through is TRUTH. whatever happens, you know? and it sounds like that's where you are – sharing with friends, asking for help, not walking on eggshells. which is all to say: even if it doesn't feel like it all of the time, this is what making it through looks like.” (Thank you, LJT.) Truth often looks like an acknowledgment of what scares us. Working with our fear is an act of remembering the survival-role of its voice, and deciding time and again to forgive its little, insecure messages like you would a small child. When your mind is flaring in hyper-vigilance, it usually means you are fearful of something. And if we are feeling even the slightest bit fearful in regard to living in greater alignment with our purpose and values, it must mean we are really going for something right for us -- tuning our vulnerability frequencies to high, and freakin going for it. And when working with our fear feels like too much, we can practice noticing. Noticing, to me, opens the gates of wonder and the subsequent recognition of tingly magic all around. Wonder leads the way to owning what is feeling right. This can be so small, so “mundane” in our daily lives, we miss it all together…regularly. Maybe it looks like noticing the delicate details of a woman’s dress. Noticing the way your toddler scrunches her nose in concentration. Noticing the feel of a hot cup of coffee on your chilly dog walk, or the warmth of soapy water on your hands. Noticing the crisp smell of the changing seasons or the top of your son’s sweet head; Counting the sea of tiny birds chirping in a backyard tree, the patterns of freckles on our hands, the fullness of our breath as we take each step . In making it through with truth, we live, honeys. We keep adventuring, and activating every cell of curiosity and gratitude in our beings because that's what inevitably gives life to the best stories -- you, living yours. Time offers new perspectives, even if we never fully recover. This is the nature of getting through. In an essay from Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper emails (which I recommend to anyone looking for weekly kindness in a sea of negativity online), author Monica C Parker writes about Wonder as a powerful antidote to suffering: "But we are so poor at knowing what makes us happy. Frequently what we end up chasing is hedonic happiness: the thing, the drink, the shoes, the Viagra to give us a sense of happiness. Yet that is directly oppositional to wonder-filled happiness. So eudaimonic happiness [having meaning and purpose] is richer, but it's still not to the point of wonder… I honor your spaces of suffering. And, I invite you to stay open to wonder. I honor your journey through. And, I invite you to stay close to your truths. in gratitude, trish
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 ask, listen. learn, believe. accept, surrender, trust. be curious. be open. we learn through play. you are not the judge. you don't need to be. be freed by this. even when you want to run away, life has to go on. especially then, onward. |
