It’s never too late to take the essence of what you care about and build it, savor it, offer it to the aching world. ~Jennifer Louden
Today, Jamie asks “What of your history do you want to remember?” I wish to remember “her story,” who I am, was and still. A big hearted, joyful and creative person who knows she is loved and safe and of value, who wants to help, wants to enjoy herself but also see others happy, a girl who loves laughing as much as she loves to make others smile. A girl with strong intuition and a sense of awe and wonder about the world, who loves art and nature. A girl who has always known who she is, even before she could name it, knew what to call it — writer, teacher, healer — with a heart made of moss, mold, mud, and Marionberries, whose blood is half seawater and half ink.
I wish to remember that for ever and always, I have been fundamentally wise and compassionate, that it’s my basic nature, my core humanness, and that this is always there, the only thing that never changes.
I just heard from a woman who was in my Chicago workshop. She greatly improved an essay she wrote by taking the risk to go deeper, then deeper still. She got to a truth she’d been hiding from, and it made all the difference. It was painful for her to write and to read aloud, but we all were stuck with the beauty of what she did, and even though we had not been through what she described, we resonated to her words. I think that’s because we’re all struggling with one thing or another here on planet Earth, and when we read about someone telling the truth about what they’re struggling with, it makes us all feel better. The Beatles were right when they said all you need is love. And I believe that part of love is telling the deepest truths about yourself, at least to yourself. It’s not easy. It’s something that for most of us is always a work in progress. But it’s worth it to try.
I get the image, sometimes, of all of humanity on a spaceship, in deepest darkness. But in the spaceship, the light is on, because of what we mean to and do for each other. And in that vast darkness, the light travels far.
8. Official video for Mary Lambert’s She Keeps Me Warm.
9. The perfectionism cure from Everyday Bright, “In this short video, I reveal the surprisingly simple method my daughter came up with to help us both overcome our perfectionism. I talk about how we eventually became comfortable with risk and, more importantly, with ourselves.”
19. Awesome free event from Omega:FIND YOUR OWN STRENGTH, Live Stream Event with Elizabeth Lesser in Conversation with Brené Brown and Joan Halifax Roshi, September 20, 2013, 8:00pm – 9:30pm.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 