Archive for October, 2012
I Am Ready
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
I am ready to let go.
I am ready to let God.
I am ready to let in.
I am ready to let flow.
I am ready to ask.
I am ready to receive.
I am ready to surrender.
I am ready.
{Photo by Mary Anne Flanagan}
Be in the Arena and Dare Greatly
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012
I came across the phrase Daring Greatly after listening to an interview about vulnerability with Brené Brown. The phrase comes from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech, Citizenship in a Republic. This is the passage that made the speech famous:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly . . .”
When I read about daring greatly, I was blown away and began to ponder what vulnerability means to me. Vulnerability means getting into the arena, doing it afraid, doing it anyway – despite the critics. Unless you are in the arena in the world – in your work, your classroom, your stage, your art, your life – putting yourself out there, then your voice as a critic is meaningless. Being vulnerable means flopping and failing and rising up again and daring greatly.
I am discovering that the greatest act of courage is being seen – really being seen.
Dare to show up to life. Dare to be seen. Dare to be in the arena. Dare greatly.
Vision and Action
Tuesday, October 16th, 2012
Breathe in your visions.
Breathe out your actions.
Be a Message of Love – National Coming Out Day
Thursday, October 11th, 2012
“We thought you were going to be a nun.” This was part of the conversation I had with my parents after coming out to them. My coming out came as a huge surprise to my parents as they thought I might enter religious life. When I asked myself how I wanted to live my life, I saw clearly that I had dreams of falling in love (with a woman). I knew I needed to love myself before I could fall in love with someone else. And knew I needed to proclaim who I am so I didn’t have to live in the shadows or live with shame. It wasn’t easy. It was very difficult for me to share and for my family to hear.
I am one of the lucky ones because I have a happy ending. My family loves me and my partner and vice-a-versa. For many gay people this isn’t true. There are still far too many people who can’t come out because it isn’t safe. There are far too many LGBT people who are beaten or suicidal. And so I encourage all of us to stand up and speak out on behalf of LGBT folks, especially young people.
Stand up. There are far too many messages of hate. We can send a message of love. We can be a message of love. I invite you to tell your LGBT friends you love them. You may think they know it, but trust me when I say they need to hear your support.
I love you.
Limitless Receiving
Tuesday, October 9th, 2012
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless, that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space. ~Pema Chodron
I am allowing my heart to be in a state of receiving. How will you let your heart be touched?
Accepting Ourselves
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012
At a gathering of some of Kobun Chino Roshi’s long-term students shortly before Kobun’s death, a student asked, “Kobun, why do we sit (meditate)?”
He replied: “We sit to make life meaningful. The significance of our life is not experienced in striving to create some perfect thing. We must simply start with accepting ourselves. Sitting brings us back to actually who and where we are. This can be very painful. Self-acceptance is the hardest thing to do. If we can’t accept ourselves, we are living in ignorance, this darkest night. We may still be awake, but we don‚t know where we are. We cannot see. The mind has no light. Practice is this candle in our very darkest room.”
Mantra: I accept myself as the light that I am.
And so it is.
Lessons from a Pity-Party
Monday, October 1st, 2012
It seems I have been having some big pity-parties lately. You know the ones – where negative self-talk and mental games fill the space in your head. There are some major changes ahead (all at the same time): new work projects that are filled with bureaucracy, unstable housing, and over a month of Vertigo that now requires more medical tests. So, I threw myself the best pity party ever!
I decided to sit quietly for an hour and just listen. Within minutes, I started sobbing and that opened me up to a beautiful meditation:
You feel like you have lost your anchor. It is true that all of your inner tools don’t seem sufficient nor are they going to move you past your challenges as you have outgrown them.
The peace path is a belief – you will return to YOURSELF. You will get up, accept help from others, sit quietly, thank Spirit, remember love, and laugh. Until then, are you willing to listen to the blahness that is guiding you knowing there is a lesson? You don’t need cheering up – rather, you can take time for cheering within. Magical thinking won’t change anything. Believing you will stay in this place is temporary. Deep down you know that this new growing edge of uncertainty will provide a necessary shift (on all levels).
You invited this in and you are the one who will know when this cranky and depressed energy has outlasted its invitation. You are being broken open and while some of these cracks hurt like hell, please know what is coming forth is more powerful than you could possibly describe in words. It’s a power that will bring your essence more fully into the world.
You are not alone. Look around and see all the amazing support that is showing up in new ways. Your support team comes in every form.
Your pity-party is not going to sustain change. So, move on. Get to work. The world is waiting for you. And more importantly, you are waiting for YOU.