On finding a way…
Over and over again, life delivers us experiences that challenge us to find a way.
When the chips are down and we've got the doubt to match, somehow, we find our way through the clouds to the clearing.
For as long as I've been alive, I've witnessed this play out in my own life and the lives of others time and time again.
Yet, when faced with the unimaginable, before the path emerges, finding a way when there seems to be no way feels impossible.
Through many trials, I've learned that relying upon and strengthening 3 particular emotional "muscles," helps me to weather the most threatening of storms.
The first is resiliency.
By definition, to be resilient is to be able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
No part of resiliency requires us to shut off who we are, though, many of us have learned to do so for the safety of our hearts. But resiliency asks us to dig deeper to find what lives within. It opens us to possibility, which, in effect, steadies those very hearts life has taught us to protect.
The next muscle, the one that expands our capacity, is resourcefulness.
Our ability to overcome and sort through problems with grace and wit is a common measure of success, but it works best when paired with our third muscle.
That muscle is reverence.
It is only through deep respect and regard for our experiences at hand, for the gravity of what's before us and the privilege that we possess in getting to be here in these bodies that resourcefulness and resiliency take flight.
The trifecta of these 3 muscles, as I am calling them here, provide us with a strength of spirit that can withstand the inconceivable and enter into the heart of the inevitable break that comes with alive.
I don't know how we can can do this life without them.
I am celebrating my 40th birthday next weekend and as I write these words, it is 8 years to the day that I became a mother to our beloved babe.
It's the day I learned the true meaning of reverence and was invited to find my way with resiliency and resourcefulness toward a new season of living.
There's something so sacred about this time of year. We are brimming with new beginnings and in this house, every one of us is embarking upon our own personal new year.
In the midst of all that is before us, I am wishing you + yours boundless love and blessings.
My prayer is that each of us can slow into the softness of our own center and find a way toward what lights and lifts us.
May we continue to find peace, meaning and places for deep connection as the waves break upon the bow of our steady boats.
Onward we go.