Tag Archives: Courage

Three Truths and One Wish

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1. Truth: This presidential election will bring change, no matter who gets elected. The only thing we can ever count on is change, it’s the nature of life. In this specific case, the cultural climate could change, so might the economy and so many other “big” things. Things might get better, they might get worse, but we know there will be some shift.

2. Truth: Whatever is different because of the outcome of this election, it won’t change my core values, and it most likely won’t have a significant impact on the way I live my daily life. My dogs will still need walked, I will still be a writer, a committed practitioner of yoga and meditation, I will still love Eric, I will still do my work, I will still be a woman, a human, and I will still try to keep my heart open.

3. Truth: No matter who is President elect when this is all over, no matter what else changes, I will continue to work towards cultivating compassion and courage, being less confused and more mindful, doing what I can to ease suffering where I find it, and inspiring others to do the same.

One Wish: That we shift from a culture of competition to one of compassion, that we let go of thinking in terms of “us” and “them” and instead develop a deep understanding that we are in this together, we share a common human experience, and that we know that even more important than our vote is our choice to be kind, to love, to keep our hearts open and do what we can to ease suffering in ourselves and in the world.

Three Truths and One Wish

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1. Truth: The secret to flight, to freedom is to open your heart. For the longest time I’ve been gluing found feathers to my sleeves and in my hair, drawing ink outlines of wings on the skin of my back, buying angel wings intended to be used for Halloween costumes, reading books on the mechanics of flight, imagining that in this way I would eventually learn to fly. Flight–the journey through space, movement through time, escape from fixed ideas and expectations, freedom doesn’t happen this way. Instead I have to relax, let go, leap or float away, open my heart and let it all in, soar in a way that is entirely different than birds do.

2. Truth: Unravelling, being broken can wake you up, give you back your life. When this started to happen to me–trauma, loss, grief, suffering–I imagined myself a perfectly constructed sweater being unravelling loop by loop, stitch by stitch, falling apart, but it turns out it was more like a tangled mess of Christmas lights, usable and workable only after they were unravelled–only then could they be lit up, only then could they color the darkness. I lost so much, only to discover what was true, what was real, what mattered in the ashes of my life after the burning. At times, it felt like dying, but it was only after, shaky and raw, that I felt fully alive, broken open.

3. Truth: Courage and vulnerability are essential, the only way to stay awake. Courage is the ability to do something that scares you, to have strength in the face of pain or grief. To be vulnerable is to be exposed potential harm, to possibly be hurt, wounded. To love what is mortal, to open my heart and be present with whatever arises, to be fully alive, awake and present, to accept impermanence is to be both vulnerable and courageous.

One wish: May we be brave even as we are broken. May we keep our hearts open knowing that we are vulnerable, that we’ll be hurt. May we have the courage to unravel, to fly, to love, to stay awake to life as it comes, whether terrible or tender, beautiful or brutal.