Hey there,
Welcome to A Hint of Hope.
And just a fair warning,
This one might be a little bit salty.
So recently,
I received an astrological reading.
I'd been to this astrologer before,
And the first time I went,
He told me there is no time to waste.
Since I'd just had cancer,
I worried,
But then he added,
There is no need to hurry.
The second year,
Right before I was going to Japan to live for four months,
He commanded I write like hell.
This time,
He said,
You're being ordained to something.
It's up to you to figure out what.
It is a time of ensoulment.
Ensoulment?
When I looked that up,
I learned it's the moment when the body and spirit come together.
When there's no doubt,
Something is alive here.
How could he have known that presence,
That connecting body and spirit in the here and now are some of the very things I've been struggling with?
I think it's why I keep taking off my shoes and walking on the earth,
Even on days when it's only 34 degrees out.
Because there isn't that much that calls us to presence these days.
Headlines rip us from where our feet are,
And they drag us to where tragedy and trauma tear lives apart.
Rage bleeds into the very fabric of our being,
From tweets to trolls to traffic.
We live pulled by our own needs and the needs of those we love.
And how are we supposed to navigate all of those long buried emotional landmines,
Ours and everyone else's?
And in the face of all this,
We might turn rabbit,
Freezing in overwhelm,
Numbing ourselves head down,
Just trying to survive.
How else to live in the teeth and fangs of it all?
Or we might go fucking medieval and dress ourselves up in elaborate mental and physical armor to protect our tender hearts.
And wisely so,
For so much is aimed at us,
Ready to pierce the soft things inside.
And that can fucking hurt.
So it's much better to protect,
Right?
But how often do we end up feeling trapped and twisted?
But how do we live,
Not up in our heads all the time,
Overcome by the nowhere fears?
How do we live now,
Here,
And sold?
I think the answer is to quiet.
To quiet enough to hear the insistent roar of is-ness that we all carry around inside.
To trust that our roar of is-ness is a good thing,
A necessary part of being alive.
To live and sold means to drop in,
To go under the armor,
To pay attention to the ache,
As hard as that can be.
We listen to what our bodies and spirits are crying out for,
Rather than letting our egos always drive the bus and never,
Ever stop.
And sold,
We live,
Soft,
Tender.
We do what we can and rest when we need.
And it can happen any moment.
Making the choice to be here,
Grounded as a stone,
Like a stone that sits always and forever in the present as leaves and snow fall,
As sun and moon and wings rise.
May you be grounded.
May you be centered.
May you live light.
