Good morning,
Sunday,
May 31st,
The end of May and the beginning of June.
I'm looking out my window to a beautifully full tree and I can hear the birds singing.
There was rain here last night in Calgary and so it's crisp with a soft breeze.
I encourage you to find a place that just for these few moments that we're together that you feel comfortable and settled.
Maybe with the birds chirping in the background,
Maybe a gentle breeze on your face.
Wherever it is that it feels peaceful and quiet for you for a few minutes,
You can just be with your breath.
I encourage you as you find that to let your eyes softly close and to really notice if you can exhale and let go.
Notice all of the underlying tension that's in your body,
In your jaw,
In your tongue.
Let it fall soft.
Your cheeks feel as if your lips are barely touching.
Can you let your eyes sink into the sockets?
Let them release the tension in your third eye,
Your intuition,
Your forehead.
Take a long breath in and not just breathing into your chest,
But I want you to feel your belly expanding fully.
Encourage it to expand and then go up into your back.
Then let a long exhale release through your nose.
As you breathe in again,
Notice if there's tension through your neck,
Your shoulders.
Breathe into it and let it expand.
Then exhale and feel the tension go.
Often in my life I've been told that I'm strong or that I'm fearless.
That is true at times for sure.
I feel strong.
But I don't know if I would say that I'm fearless.
All I know is that in my heart I try to follow what feels true,
What the universe unfolds when I pay attention,
When I know what exists in my heart and have the courage to step to it.
The fear is not removed ever,
But I step regardless.
I encourage you in quiet moments of your life to really just breathe and feel,
To silence the chatter of your mind and to begin to feel what's in your heart.
The mind will come in and come up with fears and doubts,
But can you trust in what you feel and step fearlessly in towards your heart,
Your life,
Your soul?
Fearless living isn't about taking fear away and leaving behind some superhuman immunity to fear.
It's about having the courage to move through it.
The bravest people among us must still face fear.
The people we may call heroes are not heroes because they have no fear.
They are heroic because they take action in spite of their fear.
As the sun rose,
A dewdrop became aware of its surroundings.
There it sat on a leaf,
Catching the sunlight and throwing it back out.
Proud of its simple beauty,
It was very content.
Around it were other dewdrops,
Some on the same leaf and some on other leaves around it.
The dewdrop was sure that it was the best,
The most special dewdrop of them all.
Ah,
It was good to be a dewdrop.
But the wind rose and the plant began to shake,
Tipping the leaf.
Terror gripped the dewdrop as gravity pulled it towards the edge of the leaf,
Towards the unknown.
Why?
Why was this happening?
Things were comfortable,
Things were safe.
Why did they have to change?
Why?
The dewdrop reached the edge of the leaf.
It was terrified.
Certain that it would be smashed into a thousand pieces below,
Sure that this was the end.
The day had only just begun and the end had come so quickly.
It seemed so unfair,
It seemed so meaningless.
It tried desperately to do whatever it could to cling to the leaf,
To cling to the comfort to what it knew.
But it was new use.
And finally,
It let go.
Surrendering to the pull of gravity.
And down,
Down it fell.
Below there seemed to be a mirror.
A reflection of itself seemed to be coming up to meet the dewdrop.
Closer and closer they came together until finally.
And then the fear transformed into deep joy.
As the tiny dewdrop merged with the vastness that was the pond.
And now the dewdrop was no more.
But it wasn't destroyed.
It had become one with the whole.
Recognize that we all have fear.
And we are all facets of one.
When your life doesn't reach a standstill in the face of things you can't predict,
Explain,
Rationalize,
Or finance with your bank account.
You are indeed learning to live fearlessly.
And before we part from each other,
I encourage you to take a long,
Full breath in.
And as you exhale,
Surrender any fear that you can.
As you breathe in again,
Breathe in and fill your heart and your mind with gratitude.
For all the fears you've already moved through your life.
That you're on the other side of.
That you moved through and became a little more confident and ideally a little more you.
Connected to the greater of us.
Namaste.
