Several years ago, I came across Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, Learning to Walk in the Dark. Reading her experiences from her own journey with the dark deeply enriched my own. Of many passages that spoke so personally to me, one sentence in particular stood out, and does still to this day:

It is always night somewhere,
giving people the darkness they need
to see, feel, and think things
that hide out during the day.

My own paraphrase of her statement:

In the darkness
we find the things
that have been hiding
in the light.

She goes on to write:

I have learned things in the dark
that I could never have learned
in the light,
things that have saved my life
over and over again,
so that there is really
only one logical conclusion.
I need darkness
as much as I need light.

It’s much easier to hide from deep feelings and thoughts in the daylight. We stay busy with all of the stuff of daily living. Yet in the quiet of the night, when the world around us has gone to sleep and the light is low, hiding is not so easy.

A Light That Can Only Be Seen in the Darkness

Our first confrontations with the thoughts, feelings, and stark realities that have been masked by the daylight can be uncomfortable. Sometimes they are filled with fear and anxiety. The ego, whose job it is to make sure that we survive, wants to run away to find safety.

However, the soul, in its longing for learning and growth and living into our greatest potential, wants to stay present with the moment. It somehow knows that hidden within the engulfing darkness, illumination is also waiting.

As uncomfortable as the initial confrontation may be, if we are willing to remain present from a place of openness, curiosity, and compassion, and meet what is unfolding on its own terms, something shifts. A kind of light that can only be seen or sensed in the darkness illuminates our consciousness.

Benedictine nun Joan Chittister’s words take us deeper:

Darkness deserves gratitude.
It is the alleluia point
at which we learn to understand
that all growth
does not take place
in the sunlight.

 (from her book Uncommon Gratitude)

These hours in the deep darkness have been some of the most profound in my own journey into faith, wisdom, and truth. Fears have been transformed into empowerment, anxiety into peace, confusion and doubt into clarity and confidence. And it often happens much faster than it could have by trying to work through those same issues in the light of day.

In the daylight hours, I can rationalize all kinds of things. I can conjure up many reasons why or why not for anything.

Yet caught by surprise in the darkness when a feeling, thought, or reality suddenly appears, I have no time to prepare my arguments. I have no distractions. My rational mind is thrown off guard. And in fact, I have no place to hide. It’s just me face-to-face with whatever now insists on my attention.

Staying Present Allows for the Alchemy of Transformation and Healing

I’m not saying that it’s always easy. I’m not saying that I look forward to the unsettling dreams that wake me up in the night. Yet I also no longer try to run away when the moment comes. In fact, I’ve learned that avoidance just prolongs the agony! If I’m willing to be still and ask whatever thought, feeling, or reality has just appeared what it wants me to know, the energy starts to shift quickly. Most of the time, I move from anxiousness and dread to insight and discovery in a very short time. And soon I am filled with gratitude as new levels of clarity and peace unfold.

As the light of early dawn creeps into the darkness, I recognize that what has happened could not have happened in the bright light and noise of the day. It could only happen in a space where the depth and silence of the dark could meet the depth and silence of my soul. I meet the new day with greater understanding and awareness. The darkness has done its work. Alchemy has occurred.

~ ~ ~

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Related Blog Posts:

• Slow Dancing with the Dark
• Navigating Uncertainty, Doubt, and Fear—Choosing Where You Put Your Focus

The post In the Darkness We Find the Things That Have Been Hiding In the Light appeared first on The Center for Transformational Presence.

As I reflect on all that I am grateful for, I am reminded of two things. First, that gratitude and thanksgiving can be a way of life. And second, that gratitude is a choice. In fact, so are love, compassion, acceptance, understanding, and a host of other “attitudes.” We can choose how we will meet the opportunities and challenges of our lives.  

For the last several months, I have been consciously practicing walking in love. I imagine that love is the ground on which I stand and the ground beneath my feet as I walk. I breathe into love deep in my belly. I create an intentional space of love all around me. While my primary focus has been to walk in love, I sometimes shift my focus to walk in compassion, acceptance, gratitude, or appreciation—whatever attitude feels the most appropriate in that moment. In other words, I’ve been practicing making a conscious choice about the “attitude ground” I stand in.   

It’s important to note that walking in gratitude and love does not mean denying or avoiding conflicting thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Fear, anger, resistance, or doubt may also be present. It’s not about pushing those feelings or thoughts away. Instead, it’s about choosing the attitude or energy in which I walk so that I can be present with those thoughts and feelings in the most constructive way. It’s been an incredibly empowering practice.

During this month’s community call for graduates of the TPLC* and TPLA* programs, we explored this practice through an exercise. Because the responses from participants were so powerful and illuminating, I share the exercise with you in the 11-minute video below. Let the exercise help you recognize the attitude ground that will best serve you to walk in right now.

Wherever you are in the world, may you be touched this week by the grace of gratitude and thanksgiving. 

*TPLC and TPLA are the “Transformational Presence for Leaders and Coaches” and “Transformational Presence Leadership in Action” programs.

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Related Blog Posts:

• Thanksgiving Greetings – Unexpected Gratitude
• Being in the Moment-to-Moment Flow, Even in Challenging Times
• Gratitude for the Risk Takers

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We were a group of 26 people from six countries. We gathered for four days at a cozy spa hotel in a beautiful area of Poland two hours southeast of Warsaw. Some participants had come to the workshop with specific visions, dreams, or projects that they were eager to bring to life. Others recognized that something deep inside was yearning for expression, but they couldn’t yet give it a name.

However, within our first couple of hours together, each participant found a clear sense of direction and could name their intention for the projects or visions that they wanted to manifest. The projects ranged from completing a Ph.D. dissertation, to creating programs for women in need, to healing a family relationship, to creating a new business brand, to launching a new career, to bringing more consciousness into leadership. Our journey around the Manifestation Wheel had begun.

Aligning Thoughts, Intentions, Attitude, and Action

As soon as you put a project or vision on the Manifestation Wheel and commit to the journey, the Wheel starts to work on you. Grounded in the ancient Medicine Wheel wisdom of indigenous cultures, the Manifestation Wheel expands your awareness of who you are, why you are here, and what is important to you. It helps you discover hidden potential within yourself and your vision. It supports you in aligning your thoughts, intentions, attitude, and action with the project and its deeper potential.

The Manifestation Wheel

The Manifestation Wheel is made up of eight “houses” or contexts through which to view your vision or project – Intention, Peace, Energy, Guidance, Empowerment, Action, Surrender, and Legacy.

The Legacy of Presence

In our culture, we often think of legacy as the material things that people leave behind when they retire or die – a business, a house or property, financial security for heirs. However, in the Manifestation Wheel, we consider legacy not only from a material perspective. Perhaps even more importantly, we consider it from an energetic perspective.

Through the ways that we live, the presence that we embody, and our choices, decisions, and actions, we send messages to the collective consciousness every day about what is OK and what is not, about what is important and what is not. The house of Legacy asks us to consider the impact of who we are and how we show up as we engage in the manifestation process.

More specifically, the house of Legacy asks: What are you modeling to others about presence, leadership, and care for a greater good by the ways you manifest your vision? What are you modeling for the people in your close circle? For society? For the generations yet to come?

Through the lens of Legacy, our Manifestation Wheel retreat participants could see how every project sends messages out into the consciousness about what is important to us, what can be possible in our world, and who we can be together. It doesn’t matter if the project is to complete a dissertation, to create a service project for women, or to start a new business brand or career path.

Who You Are and How You Show Up Matters

Who you are and how you show up to each day makes a difference. What you do, the choices you make, the values you uphold, the ways you treat both those close to you as well as strangers, and how you treat this planet that is our home – it all matters. It’s all contributing to the consciousness in which we live and the consciousness that the next generation will be born into.

Music is an important part of the Manifestation Wheel retreat, ushering us from one house to the next. The Legacy music is Paul Halley’s “Ubi caritas” which you can listen to below. The piece starts with men’s voices singing Gregorian chant and ends in a glorious and uplifting world music anthem of unity and peace.

As you listen, consider your own life and the contributions you are making to our collective present and future through how you live. What does this music inspire in you?

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• Standing On the Threshold of a New Era, What Role Will You Play?
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Too often in those moments, I’m at a loss for words. I share their frustration, confusion, and grief. I wish I had something profound and hopeful to say, but often I don’t. I want to say or ask something that invites open and explorative conversation – something that encourages broader perspectives and discoveries. These are things I usually do very well. Yet recently when this topic comes up, I become very quiet.

I’m also fully aware that similar conversations are happening these days in many countries, not just in the U.S. Perhaps you, too, find yourself not knowing what to say or what to do.

What I do know is that, much as we would like clear answers and dependable, agreed-upon strategies for moving forward, that’s just not where we are right now. Where we are is messy, confusing, and unsettling. And it’s not going to change anytime soon. In fact, it’s probably going to get even messier, more confusing, and more unsettling in the coming months.

Which brings the question:

How can you best show up –
as a leader, coach, parent, teacher,
or concerned citizen –
when you don’t know what to say
or what to do?

This question has been working on me for weeks. I’ve been asking for guidance in morning meditation, on walks with my dogs, during quiet times alone in the car, and in the solitude of long flights. For some time, it has felt like a message was trying to come through, yet every time I sat down to write, nothing was there. Until now.

In a recent early morning meditation, the following words spilled out onto the journal page.

Stand Tall. Be Love. Shine Your Light.

Stand tall.
Be Love.
Shine your Light.

Be true to who you know yourself to be.
Walk humbly in your strength and speak your truth.
Hold space for others to do the same.

Stretch your awareness for the full picture,
Not just the view from where you stand.
And then stretch again.

Stand in the shoes
Of those who are at risk of losing everything,
Or already have.

Stand in the shoes
Of those whose lives or opinions
You can’t comprehend.

Acknowledge all that you have
And your place in society.
And that it’s not the same for everyone.

Give all you can give.
Love all you can love.

Trust that there is something bigger unfolding
That you may not yet understand.

Not arrogant or privileged trust.
Humble trust.

Say yes to what each unfolding moment asks you for.
You will not always know why.

Say yes anyway.

Trust that you will know
The right moment to speak.
And in that moment, the words will come.

Trust that you will know
The right moment to act.
And in that moment, the next step will be clear.

Until then, remain fully engaged.

Stand tall.
Be Love.
Shine your Light.

This is what you can do right now.
Today, and tomorrow,
And the next day and the next.

You’re all in this together.
Every one of you.

Pay attention and you will find your way.
And so will the world.

~ ~ ~ 

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• Learning To Trust Again
• How To Build Trust: Pay Attention, Communicate Clearly, Be Real
• Facing Your Fear and Transforming It Into Strength

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For as long as anyone can remember, the Sunday benediction hymn in that little church has always been:

Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.

On the rare occasion that I hear that old hymn today, I am swept back in my memory to the love, nurture, and embrace I felt in that little country church. Perhaps you have also been blessed to experience powerfully supportive “ties that bind,” whether with family, friends, community, or institutions or organizations.

Sometimes the ties that bind are supportive; sometimes they hold us back

However, sometimes “ties that bind” end up holding us back. Much as we may love and care about the people and institutions with whom we have a history, we can also become entangled in those connections. On one hand, they feel important to us, yet on the other hand, they may feel like they are holding us hostage. Nurture and support may now come at a cost.

Whether as a leader, friend, partner, or family member, standing in love with those we care about sometimes means loosening the ties that bind us together. “Loosening the ties” can give some breathing space to everyone involved as well as the situation itself.

Loosening the ties that bind begins with stepping beyond the need to fix or resolve and, instead, tuning into the wisdom that lies both within ourselves and within the situation itself. As frustrating or suffocating as a situation may be, it’s happening for a reason. There is a purpose behind it. There is something to learn. There is some part of ourselves that it’s time to claim. There is a step forward to take in our own growth and development.

Four questions that can help

When you are caught in ties that bind, four questions can help you loosen them and begin to breathe more freely.

In preparation for the first question, step back from the situation and pause. Take three deep and slow breaths. Let your whole system slow down. Keep taking slow, deep breaths until you become more still inside.

As you become quieter within, drop underneath your assumptions and the assumptions of others. Step beyond how things look on the surface. Notice the stories that play inside of you and others around you, and look past them. As you ask the questions below, let the situation speak to you. You don’t need to figure it out. Just listen, sense, and feel. Let the situation do the talking.

1) What is this situation really about? Down deep – underneath your own stories and the stories that are being told. What is trying to get your attention? Take some time here before you move on to the second question.

2) What is the opportunity for learning right now? For you? For others? Listen, sense, and feel into whatever is trying to get your attention. Something wants to shift. A new pathway or direction is trying to show itself. Again, take your time before moving on.

3) How is that asking you to show up? The shift that wants to happen or the message that is trying to get your attention is asking you to embody a particular presence – a particular quality or way of being. This presence or way of being may be new for you – it might even be a stretch. It’s OK – that’s part of the learning. In this moment, maybe it’s asking you to be honest, or creative, or courageous, or compassionate. You will know what it is asking of you. And if you get stuck, be gentle and compassionate with yourself. Take another breath, drop deeper, and let it situation talk to you. Give yourself time and space.

4) What step is it asking you to take now? Just one step. You don’t need to find a master plan. Just a next step.

These four simple questions can be a start toward loosening the ties that bind. They can help you step beyond “responsibilities” that feel heavy and burdensome into feeling “response-able” – able to respond to what is happening in a way that begins to lift everyone and the situation up. After you take that next step, go back to question #1. Let the four questions continue guiding you for the next step and the next. One step at a time.

Becoming Response-Able

When you loosen the ties, you become freer to simply be present with the situation. The more you are able to be present with what is without the need to fix it, the more you will be able to sense the opportunities for learning. You will find the path for your next steps, both for yourself and for healthy support of others. You will more easily sense how it’s asking you to show up, and be able to respond in ways that truly make a difference. You become more and more “response-able.”

A few weeks ago after reading my article “Learning to Trust Again,” my friend and Transformational Presence colleague Sascha Krijger sent me this poem of Nelson Mandela. His words are beautiful and clear.

I’ve also been experimenting with replacing his words “To let go” in every stanza with “Loosening the ties that bind.” For example, in the first stanza, instead of:

To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring:
it means I can’t do it for someone else.

 I change the words to:

Loosening the ties that bind doesn’t mean to stop caring:
it means I can’t do it for someone else.

 And I continue with that text replacement throughout the poem.

Experiment with both the original version and the revised version. The right version for you will be the one that speaks to you the most deeply.

Letting Go

by Nelson Mandela

To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring:
it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off;
it is the realization that I can’t control another.

To let go is not to enable,
but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to try to change or blame another;
I can only change myself.

To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.

To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to be in the middle arranging outcomes,
but to allow others to effect their own outcomes.

To let go is not to be protective;
it is to permit another to face reality.

To let go is not to deny
but to accept.

To let go is not to nag, scold, or argue,
but to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.

To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and to cherish the moment.

To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less
and love more.

 ~ ~ ~

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Related Blog Posts:

• Letting Go to Freedom and New Possibilities
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The post Loosening the Ties That Bind appeared first on The Center for Transformational Presence.

During the Soul Mission * Life Vision intensive retreat a few weeks ago in the Netherlands, this quote from Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl landed in my inbox:

Between stimulus and response,
there is a space.

In that space is our power
to choose our response.

In our response lies
our growth and our freedom.

Between what happens and our response to it, there is a space of time. When we are not so self-aware, that space of time is often very short, and we react to what has happened without considering that we actually have choices.

In that space of time lies our power to choose whether we will be in reaction or response. Choosing to respond with intention and awareness is a first step in conscious living.

How we choose to respond can open a space for growth and freedom, or can close down possibilities and box us in. Our response will, in turn, have an impact on everyone else involved in the situation. How we exercise our power to choose matters.

Choosing who to be before what to do   

When we think of the power to choose, most of us have been conditioned to think about choice within the context of action. While in some circumstances there may appear to be multiple choices for what we will do, we are often faced with situations in which our choices for action feel limited. As a result, we feel trapped. No place to go.

However, when we broaden our perspective to consider our power to choose who we will be – to choose how we will show up to our situation or circumstance – the possibilities immediately open. We have the power to choose our attitude, to choose from what perspective we will view the situation, to choose the position we will take. In essence, we have the power to choose the quality of our presence. Choosing the quality of our presence impacts the quality of our experience.

Again, words of Viktor Frankl:

When we are no longer able to change a situation,
we are challenged to change ourselves.

 Everything can be taken from a man
but one thing:
the last of the human freedoms –
to choose one’s attitude
in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.

When we claim our power to choose who we will be – the presence that we will embody within a situation – we discover that there is a higher wisdom within us that, in fact, knows the presence to embody and the path to walk. Choosing who we will be makes the choice of what to do clearer. A next step becomes apparent. The key is to pay attention – to pause and listen for the voice of wisdom inside of us and follow its guidance.

It’s a Practice

I fully admit that this is a practice. It may not come easily at first. We may have to dig through a lot of “protections” – protections that we have layered on top of our inner wisdom for a multitude of reasons that at some point may have been important.

Some of those protections – perhaps even all of them – may no longer be relevant. They belong to another time. And so we peel away those layers of protections that no longer serve so that we can get to the wisdom inside of us that is waiting to be uncovered.

In my own experience, I’ve learned that the more I practice consciously choosing who I will be in every moment, the less I feel the need for protections. By exercising the power to choose, I keep getting stronger from the inside out.

The space between stimulus and response. The power to choose. Therein lies our freedom.

~ ~ ~

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The post The Power to Choose – Opening Space for Growth and Freedom appeared first on The Center for Transformational Presence.

Yet when we are fully present to this waiting time—when we are willing to accept this seeming emptiness without conditions and let it talk to us—what has been hidden can slip quietly into the open. What has been a mystery begins to be understood.

The “waiting space” becomes a discovery space. We realize that it’s not a “wait and see” space after all. It’s a “liminal space” that is doing its work.

What is a liminal space?

The word “liminal” comes from the Latin root, limen, which means “threshold.” A liminal space is a “crossing over” space – a space in which we have left something behind, yet we are not yet fully with something new. It’s a transition space that can take many forms.

One kind of liminal space is that time in the early morning when you are floating in and out of sleep. Deep in the night, it seems that there are no boundaries between realities, time, space, and thoughts. What has been hidden during the daylight hours now comes to life, albeit perhaps in a veiled or confusing way. Things swirl together.

Then as you enter that early morning liminal space between the dark and the light, you may vacillate between a boundary-free dimension and a world of form and structure. You aren’t sure where you are, what is real, and what is imagined.

As daylight finally ushers you back into three-dimensional awareness, you reenter the linear, orderly world of structure and form. Yet your experience in the liminal space remains with you.

This is just one example. However, the concept of liminal space is not limited to short-term transitions such as night into morning. A liminal space can also exist as a much longer space-time continuum—for days, weeks, or months.

Caught in Between

It can feel like you are caught in between, yet even that might not be clear. Much as you might like to move on, you realize that something is going on in your inner awareness. Yet you can’t clearly define it, and nothing you do can hurry things along. The process of a liminal space takes as long as it takes.

You might land in a liminal space for any number of reasons. Perhaps a particular event or circumstance has interrupted the life you were living and now everything is up in the air. Or maybe something is unfolding around you that will have a significant impact on your next steps, yet you have no control over that circumstance and its timing.

Or it could be that you are clear about what your next steps should be, yet somehow you sense that now is not the time to take those steps. And you don’t know when the right time will come. And so you wait.

Liminal spaces can bring us face-to-face with our inner fears about who we are, how we show up in the world, our strengths and vulnerabilities, and our successes and disappointments. It can cause us to question the very core of our beliefs, practices, and identities. Yet it can also help us transform who we are and how we move in the world. And herein lie its power and its gifts.

Shaking Us Out of Our Habitual Lives

The liminal space shakes us out of our habitual lives. It draws us out of what we have known, yet, for the moment, does not allow us to know what is coming next. Or when it is coming.

It’s the chrysalis stage for the caterpillar. The caterpillar may instinctively know from its genetic programing that it must weave itself into a cocoon, yet it probably has no conscious sense of why, for how long it will be there, or that it will emerge as a butterfly.

In a similar way, we may instinctively weave ourselves into a liminal cocoon. We may not even be aware that we have woven this space around us, or know why it’s important to be here.

The liminal space is an invitation to surrender—an invitation to give over to something larger than self and trust that we will be held and supported with whatever we need in order to navigate the uncertainty.

The degree to which we are comfortable or uncomfortable has to do with how we choose to be with what is happening. We can choose to fight against the liminal space and struggle, or to partner with it by listening, sensing, and responding. Trusting in “the big” is key to navigating the liminal space.

The Transformation Space

Transformation happens when we are not in charge. It can’t happen when we are holding on to control. Sometimes we need to be shaken loose from our foundations in order to be open for something bigger.

This is the space where a new reality can be born. It’s a space where we can finally let go of an approach, a way of being, a role, an identity, or a belief, so that something new can be created.

Landing in a liminal space from time to time is essential for our own transformation and evolution. The liminal space has an agenda for us, even though that may not be obvious at first. At its essence, it is usually about letting something completely dissolve, leaving us open and free to discover what is waiting for us next. Otherwise, we continue holding onto remnants of the old. Holding on makes us more likely to create another version of the past rather than co-creating with what is waiting for us.

Liminal Space As a Turning Point 

When we don’t understand what liminal space is, or that we have landed here for a reason, then being in that space can be difficult and confusing. Yet if we are willing to use our inner senses to uncover what is waiting for us in this space—if we are willing to let go of control and surrender to a greater potential waiting to unfold—the shifts in awareness and personal transformation can be enormous.

Every time I have landed in a liminal space and have chosen to partner with it, that “waiting time” has become a turning point in my life. I won’t sugarcoat it to say that it’s always easy. It takes focus and attention. And it takes trust. Having an established reflective practice and the diligence and fortitude to stick with it helps. Yet the more I trust the flow and evolution of my own life path and work with it instead of fight against it, the richer life becomes.

~ ~ ~

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Related Blog Posts:

• Learning To Trust Again
• Hidden Messages in the Ebb and Flow of Life
• Faithfully Letting Go—Finding the Path From What Has Been To What Could Be

The post The Waiting Space – When the Past is Over And the Future Hasn’t Shown Up Yet appeared first on The Center for Transformational Presence.

The greatest thing that any of us has to offer is Love.

In that same Town Hall as well as in a campaign advertisement, candidate Cory Booker passionately stated:

We are a nation of love of all people.
You can’t lead the people
if you don’t love the people.
All of the people.
Love is not a sentiment.
It is not saccharine.
It is not anemic.
Love demands sacrifice and service
and the understanding that
if your rights are denied,
then my rights are compromised.

In an interview after the July Democratic primary debates, Cory Booker said:

People may say that Love
is not a political strategy.
But I really think it is.
It’s the most fearsome, tough, strong emotion
that we can talk about.
Patriotism is about love of country.
You cannot love your country
unless you love
your fellow countrymen and women.

Twice on the Democratic Primary Debate stage, candidate Marianne Williamson has also spoken eloquently about the power of love over fear.

Something extraordinary is happening. Love is breaking through in American politics. Love is being spoken out loud on debate stages, in interviews, and in campaign advertisements. Not sentimental love, not romantic love, not sweet love. No, Love is being spoken out in a much bigger context—as the fundamental source of life, as a power to be reckoned with, as a force for creation. Even if it’s only a crack, something is shifting. In my memory, this has never happened before in a U.S. presidential campaign.

As a contemporary spiritual teacher and speaker, “choosing love over fear” has been Marianne Williamson’s core message since her early days. It’s a familiar topic in the world she comes from. So her followers expected this to be her message in the 2020 campaign.

However, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Cory Booker have spent their careers in the American political and service arenas. They have each made their mark serving communities with big challenges. Buttigieg also served as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve in Afghanistan. They both came of age professionally in a world where Love was rarely, if ever, a part of the mainstream conversation, let alone the political conversation.

While not yet at the top of the polls, both Buttigieg and Booker are recognized nationally as serious candidates in the race. They both have an impressive grasp of the issues and speak clearly about what is happening in all levels of society, from small towns and small business to foreign relations and the global economy. They both have a vision for our country. They are each making an impact. People are listening.

Yet at the heart of who they are—their core messages, their policy statements, and their visions and dreams for America and the world—is Love. Love.

More than 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was also not afraid to speak openly about Love. He, too, understood Love as a power and a force. Could it be that we are finding our way back to the truth he spoke so long ago? In his words:

One of the great problems of history
is that the concepts of love and power
have usually been contrasted as opposites –
polar opposites –
so that love is identified with
resignation of power,
and power with
denial of love.
What is needed is a realization
that power without love
is reckless and abusive,
and love without power
is sentimental and anemic.

In his poem, “Legacy,” contemporary word artist Brian Andreas calls us into action from this same truth:

I promise you
not a moment will be lost
as long as I have
heart & voice
to speak
& we will walk together again
with a thousand others
& a thousand more
& on and on
until there is no one among us
who does not know
the truth:
there is no future without Love.

Deep in our heart of hearts, many of us know that nothing else matters if there is not Love. And yet we have been afraid to say that word out loud in our national conversation. Until now. Three candidates for President of the United States have broken the taboo. There is now a crack in the façade. There is now at least a small opening in the national conversation for the Light to shine through.

I am not naïve enough to think that love will now be front and center in the 2020 presidential campaign. There remains an abundance of fear in our national psyche—fear from all sides of the political argument that our country will not look the way we personally want it to look, that our communities might change, that things will never be the same again.

And yet Love has now been given a voice in the political arena. Something has shifted in the mass consciousness. May it be a first step towards:

…walking together again
with a thousand others
& a thousand more
& on and on
until there is no one among us
who does not know
the truth:
there is no future without Love.

~ ~ ~

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It’s a wonderful thing to have people we can count on for support during difficult times. However, for whatever reasons, sometimes we have to walk through what is happening on our own. When we’re on our own, it helps to at least have something to reassure us, something to give us strength and courage, something that keeps reminding us again and again, “You can do this.” Perhaps it is a photograph, an object, a poem, or a song – something that serves as a talisman to reconnect you with whatever you need in the moment.

Over the last year, the refrain of Carrie Newcomer’s song, “You Can Do This Hard Thing,” has become a powerful sound talisman for me.

You can do this hard thing.
You can do this hard thing.
It’s not easy, I know,
But I believe that it’s so,
You can do this hard thing.

These words and melody sing in my heart every day, reminding me that everything is doable. Whatever challenge may arise, I know that I can handle it. It’s all going to be OK. You can listen to the song on the YouTube video below.

The Principle of Polarity from ancient wisdom teaching tells us that nothing can exist unless it’s opposite is also true. In our everyday lives, this principle means that the question cannot exist unless the answer is somewhere around us or within us. The challenge cannot exist unless the pathway forward is also present somewhere within the situation. The conflict cannot exist unless the process for resolution is available to us as well.

And so it is with your “hard thing.” If you have a “hard thing” in front of you, it means that somewhere within you or around you is also everything you need to be able to move forward. So pause, take a deep breath, and get quiet. Listen, sense, and feel. There is a message or guidance or a sign around you or within you to show you a next step. Give yourself space. The next step is all you have to take for now. After that step, the next one will show itself.

Going forward, keep breathing, pausing to listen, and staying present. You can do this hard thing.

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On this particular morning, the lake was like glass – a perfect mirror for the sunrise sky. Still standing, I paused to take in the beauty. In that moment, there was nothing but the cool, crisp, damp morning air, the sun painting in pastels on the clouds and the water, and silence. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect gift to start my day.

Yet as I took a few more steps to sit for meditation, another surprise awaited me. Sometime between the evening before and my early morning arrival, someone else had spent time in this spot. Something inspired that person to create a beautiful tiny sculpture on the wide arm of the Adirondack chair. It was elegantly simple, made from small stones, shells, and flowers. The creator had left it as a gift for whoever might come to sit here next. An intentional act. A gift of beauty. Giver and receivers unknown to each other.

The simple elegance of this tiny sculpture gift took my breath away. My heart smiled. My meditation was deep and peaceful. Some time later as I left to continue my walk, I wondered how it might touch the next person.

I soon began imagining what intentional act of beauty I could create that day. What could I anonymously give forward? What surprise smile might my gift bring to someone else’s heart?

So simple. An anonymous yet intentional gift created from what was available in the moment. A small act that quietly touched hearts and helped to make the world a better place.

What small act of beauty or goodness might you create today?

~ ~ ~

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