“No time to explain. Get in the Van!”

The energy of that phrase invites us to reinvent our lives. There was a moment during our Joy of Purpose retreat last week, when the grand adventure of reinvention overwhelmed me.

This usually involves lots of very loud crying. More on that in a second.

God definitely has an epic sense of humor, because my reinvention literally includes a Mystery Machine Rad Van! At one point I swung it down the hill at Kripalu Center and piled our guests in for a ride off-campus.

It gave me the reminder that: to fully teach “the Joy of Purpose”— I must surrender more deeply into my own. Mine includes 1990’s upholstery and a subsonic, bitchin’ sound system.

The next morning’s emotional release followed a deep Ayurvedic healing massage.

When I asked the healer about the properties of the small bucket of oil she rubbed so deeply into my scalp and skin, she said: “You remember when you were a tiny boy and you screamed to your Mother for comfort? And then she came to soothe you? That is this oil.”

Sobering moments, when we can see fully how our lives have been realigned into something very unique, and potent.

For me, the biggest Gobsmacks hit like waves of Permission 2: to Feel All the Feels. I sob at the beauty, and enormity of it all. All of the Divine assistance that created a life so much more rich and weird than I could’ve planned on paper.

The doors that opens in our careers are well beyond anything we studied in school. As I drove the Rad Van from Ohio, through upstate NY, up into the stunning Berkshires of Western Mass— I laughed many times that there was no formal training for my very unique job.

Realizing that all of this rarely makes the journey easy, and it always makes it an epic adventure.

Do you feel called to adventure? I’m like Doc Brown showing up in the flying Deloreon just moments after you finally made it Back to the Future.

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

I’m noticing many more subtle (and big) ways we’ve needed to bust out of the structures that protected us during the pandemic. It could take decades to process the shake-up the last three years gave us.

Transformation rolls like that.

I’ve coached so many legit Transformers who’ve sensed something BIG was shifting for them.

And when transformation shows up, it seems to say: “No time to explain. Get in the van!” We’re being called to serve elsewhere. Our clothes no longer fit, cuz we dropped 45 lbs. We’ve “made peace with what the world is asking of us”. This is the indicator of Permission 3: “To Glow in the Dark.“

We pray, practice, and invite in all the transformation we’ve been craving. It all feels like one grand adventure.

Until it doesn’t. Because transformation can pound us like 100 foot waves. Conga-line dancing people through those fires of change seems to be my job as a coach. As a Dad. As a teacher.

My purpose is to gamify the brutal work of transformation.

Because when it glows with all the sun and fun, and all the shiny possibilities— it’s far more alluring than being dragged there against our will. The world needs us to adapt to serve the new world that’s emerging. The least we can do is paddle our asses out to new, bigger waves.

And I’m always happy to tow you out on a jet ski.

I can’t overstate how terrifying this can be. Fear is the darkness that gathers around our glow. And yet, what choice do we have? The status quo will be nibbled away from us by inflation, climate change, or by all the other symptoms of our hyper-evolution.

((( Surrender into Purpose)))

Over the last 3 years, I coached, and wrote a lot while sitting inside 4 comfy walls. That safe, sacred space was all I needed to do my job.

The deeper I get into my teaching journey, in many ways, the more ridiculous that journey gets. Our lives may become so blessed, all of it “approaches the unreal” to quote Limelight, by RUSH.

While at Kripalu, I was overcome with the loving, compassionate vibes of its namesake, Swami Kripalu (1913-1983). I wrote the following reminder. For you, for your kids, and for myself when I forget:

R E M E M B E R :

“Your dreams have plans for you.

Yoga has plans for you.

Our beautifully broken, precious world has plans for you.

“Every great saint who has penetrated to the core of Reality has confirmed— that a Divine plan exists, and that it is beautiful and full of Joy.” –Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

Let all of these storms pass through. Remind yourself like your life depends on it— because sometimes it does:

“I am the sky, watching all weather move through me.”

Whatever light you can offer, we need it. You are irreplaceable and so incredibly valuable to the rest of us.”

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