Hey there.
Welcome.
Welcome to taking this time to drop inside to our centers,
To settle and breathe.
Inhale.
Exhale.
I recently went to a church service where an old student was preaching.
And during one of the prayers at the service,
A woman asked the divine to unsettle us.
I almost raised my hand and said,
Um,
Excuse me,
But no,
No,
I do not need any more unsettling.
Thank you very much.
In fact,
The whole reason I meditate,
Do yoga and reach toward the divine is to settle down.
I do not need you,
Very kind woman or anybody else asking the big energy in this world to bring more chaos.
The world can feel so wild and unpredictable.
Many of us might be left feeling that our lives are reeling.
We feel the danger of being sucked under by it all.
The last thing we need is to be more unsettled.
And yet that woman's prayer was strangely wise because we are often settled,
Settled in our fear because it can feel as familiar to us as our skin.
We might be settled in our comfort,
Settled in what we know,
Even though we may know it might not be serving us.
It can all be true.
We can long to be settled and it is imperative that we find ways to do that for ourselves.
And it might be best for us to be unsettled from some of our familiar ways,
Which might be why I've been reading about chaos theory lately.
Chaos theory argues that while there can be stretches of time when everything feels ordinary and predictable,
Life in general is not ordered or rational.
It is random.
Life is flux and change.
In fact,
Change is life.
For if you do not let go of this breath and change it in for another,
You will die.
If this is the case,
That life is change,
And it sure seems to me that that is true,
Then change and chaos are not things to endure.
Change and chaos are what to expect.
Well,
That's scary as heck,
Ain't it?
Because how can you know anything?
How can you prepare for anything if change and chaos are what we should expect?
I am more and more convinced living this way has to be an inside job.
If change and chaos are what to expect,
Well,
Then there really is little we can do out there to control it all.
What we can do is find the tools to go inside ourselves and make these selves of ours as centered and grounded as we can.
When we do that,
We are able to adapt,
To meet the new conditions,
And live in such a way that we not only survive,
But thrive.
There are all kinds of ways we can give ourselves these tools,
Find what we love,
What centers us,
And commit to doing that as much as possible.
That might be forest bathing,
Or gardening,
Cooking,
Loving the two-legged and four-legged we share our lives with.
And you guessed it,
Meditation can also give us these tools.
When we center,
When we follow the breath,
It helps us to meet what is,
To move away from resistance and struggle,
And drop into our centers where our true grit and radiance live.
So,
In this wondrous mess of life,
May you find ways to settle yourself,
To meet the chaos and the change from your radiant center.
At the same time,
May you unsettle yourself away from fear.
Unsettle yourself away from holding and gripping and trying so damn hard to hold it all together.
Settle yourself away from what if.
Be in what is.
Be in this moment,
Here and now.
Breathe.
Stay.
Stay present with what is,
This ever-changing dance of breath and life.
Stay present.
Meet change.
Live the heck out of what is.
Welcome what's next.
And may you stay brave,
Curious,
And kind on your live light way.
