It happens every year sometime in mid-August. Having taken a much-needed pause from writing weekly articles and coaching appointments, I start itching to write again. I start missing the weekly article ritual. I start missing the creative, interactive part of my work. I start missing in-person connections with so many of you – amazing people who are making a difference all around the world. I start missing the ways in which we inspire one another and learn together. So here we are once again in late August, and once again I’m remembering what brings me alive more than anything else.
Not long ago in a commentary on one of his word-art paintings, Kai Skye said:
I write to find out who is
seeing through these eyes now.
I write to find out
what I think about things
I never before thought to think about.
I write to clearly see
what matters to me
& to just as clearly see what doesn’t.
– Kai Skye
(formerly known as Brian Andreas)
Forty years ago, as I was starting my professional life as a singer, I never would have imagined that I would become a writer. I never would have imagined that I had so much to say – or perhaps better said, so much to discover. I never would have imagined that I would become so interested in how the world works – I mean how it really works, not the somewhat shallow view that I grew up with. I never would have imagined that I would become a spiritual teacher, a coach, and a mentor.
Recognizing a Deeper Part of Me
When I first read these words of Kai Skye, I recognized some deeper part of me and why I do what I do. It’s a part of me that I’ve known for a long time, yet Kai’s simple and clear articulation in some way reintroduced me to me.
Yes, this is why I write: to know more about who I am and what I think and feel, and to find out what I think about things I may not have considered before. Every topic that I explore opens a new door of awareness or expression (or both) inside of me. I hear or read something, like Kai’s words, and they spark a discovery or a perspective or an understanding in a new or deeper way. As I read, study, ponder, and write, I learn more about what truly matters to me, and sometimes about what doesn’t. In real truth moments, I discover that something I have always thought was important to me actually isn’t any longer, and other things that I haven’t paid much attention to have now become more important.
Learning is what brings me alive. Life keeps teaching me.
The older I get, the more I realize that learning and deepening my understanding about how the world works as energy in motion is what brings me alive. The ancient wisdom teachings upon which Transformational Presence is based keep teaching me. Human energy technology—to me, perhaps the next great frontier that is calling out to us—keeps teaching me. And now, the deeply unsettled times in which we are living have become my most challenging and profound teacher yet.
Every day, I learn something more about what truly matters to me as well as what doesn’t. Every day, I experience opposing thoughts or emotions crashing together in coexistence within me as if there was no space in between them. Every day, I gain deeper appreciation for the subtleties and tenderness and ferociousness of the human experience. Every day I recognize deeper blessings, and sometimes deeper sorrows. And every day I feel the “response-ability” to give something back—to contribute to our present and future together as a global society.
Spirituality in Action
Van Jones is a changemaker and social justice accelerator. As a commentator on CNN, he brings clarity, humanity, wisdom, and unvarnished truth to the political conversation. Recently, he spoke these words:
It’s in that convergence of
spiritual people becoming active and
active people becoming spiritual
that the hope of humanity
now rests.
– Van Jones
For me, these words give voice to the bridge I want to help build. This is where I accept my response-ability to give something back. Over the years, a lot of baggage has been dumped on the word “spirituality.” While I am, in fact, a deeply spiritual person, for the last ten years I have distanced myself from that term because of that baggage.
No more. To be in integrity with myself, I can’t do that any longer. Until we as a society stop separating material from spiritual, secular from sacred, or what we do from who we are, we cannot fulfill the hope of humanity. For, in fact, material and spiritual, secular and sacred, what we do and who we are, all converge in the wholeness of our experience of Life. And that wholeness of our experience is borne out of how we show up to every day, and how we choose to respond, both in our presence and in our action, to the opportunities and challenges that come our way.
And so back to where we started—remembering what brings me alive. What brings me alive is discovering, learning, growing, and evolving in the wholeness of who I am and what I can contribute to the collective.
And that brings me back to you.
Our 2020-2021 learning and discovery season at the Center for Transformational Presence cannot help but unfold within the context of a global pandemic and the political, social, racial, and economic challenges and opportunities of our times. What will be the determining factor in how we navigate this unsettled season of our lives?
It will come down to how much we focus on what we are being asked to learn. Right here, right now, each moment of each day.
More specifically, how much we focus on what we are being asked to learn about the interconnectedness of all of life, and how we choose to move forward together to create a world that works.
~ ~ ~
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