The courage it takes

Yesterday while I was at a funeral service for my partner’s father who died surrounded by love, someone confided in me about reconnecting with her parents, people she’d been estranged from for years.

I marveled, with her, about the courage it takes to look for healing despite tragic circumstances. We can’t always do that. When we can, however, we shift the deep patterns that often drive our lives.

This morning in my early morning meditation my heart filled with the courage it takes for all of us to live our lives, to cautiously and somewhat resentfully (at times) befriend the painful wounds of life.

I thought of my nephew who is now my niece, and my heart broke with the courage it takes to be a teen knowing you were choosing something so very different from what the culture and even the family identified you as.

I remembered the many people at the Compassionate Mind Conference who came up to me, one by one, after my keynote. One by one they shared what opened up for them when I lead the group of hundreds of people in the Modified Half Archer (audio practice).

Throughout the day and evening after the keynote people would thank me for what came alive in them, how they remembered what really mattered to them. They described how the practice gave them an embodied sense of what they were reaching for, what they wanted and needed, and how the practice settled their heart and relaxed their spirit.

I’m thinking of a man who was triggered seeing people at the conference who had been abusive to him in the past. Practicing the posture spontaneously brought him into his compassionate self and helped him integrate.

This morning, I reflected on the courage of people who have invited me into their lives and allowed me to walk with them through their healing.

It takes so much courage to trust that life is compassionate and kind, that even when our hearts are ripped open, when we’ve been betrayed, when we’re alone and feel our desperation that even then life is opening the door to us.

We have to choose something different than the painful past repeating itself.

And yet, if we can garner the courage to acknowledge our suffering, focus on the intention to cultivate the many qualities of kindness and goodness then the doorway opens to heart of compassion.

This morning as I sat in meditation I thought of you, grateful for the everyday moments when the struggle of life opens up a moment of clarity and peace.

May your life grow in peace and connection.

Sending goodness,

Deirdre