Three Truths and One Wish

1. Truth: Confidence is the antidote to fear. It is medicine for the poison of anxiety and worry. And it doesn’t mean being cocky or puffed up about yourself. It means open-hearted faith in your own capacity for natural wisdom and compassion, belief in fundamental, basic goodness. It means resting in the knowledge that everything is unfolding exactly as it should be, and that everything presents an opportunity to love more, to learn to practice and get stronger.

2. Truth: I will know what to do when the bad stuff happens. It will be bad, hard, brutal, and maybe even terrifying, but I will be able to handle it, make the right decisions, do the right thing.

3. Truth: I don’t have to live in the someday moment of terror right now. I don’t have to actively reject it, plan for it, worry about it, or anticipate it. I can surrender, let go and be present in this moment. This moment when he is here, I can see him, reach out and touch his physical form, a body that right now is surprisingly healthy and strong, alive.

One wish: That everyone suffering from physical illness, whether it be chronic, temporary, or terminal feel some relief, experience love, connection, and joy in this moment.

1. Truth: Nervous anticipation, anxiety and worry is always worse than the actual thing that you are waiting on, fearing. When it comes, you will know what to do. Your heart might break, but you will survive it.

2. Truth: Uncertainty, not knowing, not being sure is uncomfortable. You sit with your confusion, your helplessness. You don’t know what to do, or how to help, and it’s irritating, it hurts.

3. Truth: Life is both tender and terrible, beautiful and brutal. Even in the moments when you feel like you can’t breathe, like your own thoughts and feelings are poisoning you, you are alive.

One wish: That we can, with wisdom and compassion, be where we are, fully open and awake, engaged and connected with all that is. That we remember we are not alone. That we can turn the poison into medicine.