What I want you to know about the world
It's mostly beauty. It's mostly life unfolding into and out of itself. It's mostly working.In my work as a spiritual consultant, I'm an ally for this truth. It's my job to help my clients expose the secrets that lurk in the shadows and draw out the whispering voices of shame and self-doubt and blame and rage and terror.And to look at these things - in the light of day. There, as my clients have taught me again and again, there is no terror or problem or broken bit of the soul that does not turn out to be, when observed in this light, love. Love twisted. Love thwarted. Love repressed, abandoned, betrayed. Love misunderstood.When we call our 'demons' out, we discover that they are not demons at all but rather, wounded, broken and suffering shadows themselves.Long ago, when I was a teenager and suffering woefully - and ragefully - over some mean girl’s words, my father told me, “You don’t know what her reality is. You can't know what she's living with."Of course, that didn't help - not really - not then. They were MEAN - and I didn't like it. And I didn't have to. But my dad's words did help me, later, to see that those mean girls weren't mean because of something about me - it wasn't personal. All the way back then, I could see that the meaner the girl (or the boy) the more meanness they must be experiencing inside.There is a source, deep at the heart of every human soul, that knows that we are love. That's why we suffer so when we can't seem to .... be that way. When it feels as if the world is against us. When we can't, no matter how we try, hold our vibration in the happy place.Sometimes, life just ... sucks.And that's okay. I mean, it's starting to be okay. I'm getting there. I'm guessing that you are on your way there, too.Lately, even in my darkest emptiest days, I am able to remember (albeit vaguely) that I am love. So that when weeks like last week happen and the world starts roiling with terror and outrage and (as if the pot needed more stirring) $%#@& politicians deliberately trying to start trouble, I can stay grounded. Mostly.Last week, I got pulled in - I began to point to the violence and the TRULY unconscious and irresponsible things our leaders were saying - out loud... into microphones. And for a moment, truly, it took my breath away.And my world gave a shake. I was outraged. I was terrorized. And for a little while, I began to question what I know, what I teach. "Well, maybe I was wrong. Cuz clearly THAT can't be love."I don't know why I do that.And I've stopped asking.In fact, I find 'Why?" to be a totally useless question in situations like this. Who cares why I do it?It's ever more helpful to ask: How might we use this to return to love?That's my new question.I look at what is here - this outrageous politician, this popcorn-style violence - and I ask, how do I want to meet this?And inevitably, when I let my heart answer, it's always the same thing: Return to love. Return to love. Return to love. How? Well, different things.Sometimes, I sit by the window and my cat comes to sit with me. She purrs. I write.Other times, I go to yoga. I follow my teacher's instructions: Lie on the floor. Bend your knees into your chest. Breathe. I ground to the floor. I reach for the ceiling. And as my mind lets go, my body takes over and I feel ... better. More whole.And sometimes, and this one's my favorite, I go outside.I walk in the woods. I look around. I notice the leaves densely packed and already beginning to rot. I notice the birds zipping from one fence post to another. I notice the scent of horse manure and hay. I notice the moisture in the air.I remember that, even though across the world and maybe right next door some terrible thing may be in process, all of this is here, too.