Licking the Wound

Everyday the earth is bleeding millions of gallons of oil. It is terrible to witness her injury, but too there is something powerful in her rage at the violation of such a deep puncturing. Injuries produce a similar hemorrhaging in our bodies, whether they are visible or not. Usually, we rush to stop the blood loss as quickly as possible. But there is also the thrill of making visible our own interiority, a bright red fluidity to our seemingly solid skin.

Blood is the basis of our circulatory system, it is nutrients and oxygen, the cleansing of waste. When we bleed, we can witness our own regeneration. Often we rush to cover our injuries, to bandage them, wrap them, compress them in order to reduce inflammation. But there is something powerful about presencing our injuries in the way that bleeding does, to acknowledge the damage and bare evidence of its healing. Some heal faster than others, but all injuries provide us with important information about what we want for our lives and who we want to be. Pay attention. This is what the earth is asking of us now. Listen to her, to yourselves.

Shifting sky, moving ground…

The sky has been shifting all day, changing from blue to grey, filling with swollen white clouds then darkening to sudden, pounding rain.

It reminds me how much we change throughout the day, the mercurial nature of our emotions. One minute the world is an exquisite gift, the birds sing, a dog runs exuberantly toward the grass, the young girl next door smiles at you with her two front teeth. Then the sky darkens and there is a weight to everything, as if the day itself has sat on your chest.

It is easy to get caught up in these changes, to tell ourselves stories about their permanence. But they are simply the shifting sky, the moving ground, the endless movement that is life. It reminds me of a line from Rilke, “let everything happen to you, beauty and terror…no feeling is final.”

Outside the wind had picked up, sending a white flight of clouds across the sky. To the north the afternoon is darkening. But south, in a crook of perfectly blue sky, the sun is shining hello.

New Beginnings

It is spring now and the hillsides are bursting with color. Even on city streets, there are trees laden with white and pink blossoms. It is the season of new growth, a time for new beginnings.

Every morning there is the joyous song of birds. This is the call to let go of things that weigh you down, that no longer serve you. Letting go is the necessary act to create the space for something new. This letting go can be painful, often we feel as naked as winter trees in this space between what we have been and who we want to become. But nothing can grow if we do not provide the necessary space for it to flourish.

I experienced this truth so profoundly this past year. I was fiercely holding on to things that were dying, things that would eventually drain the life out of me. Not only did I have a tight grip, but I felt a sense of pride about my stubborn loyalty to them. As a friend once said, “the mind is a trickster, it tells you all kind of things.” It wasn’t until I finally let go that life’s immense possibilities were again available to me.

Take a moment to reflect on who you are becoming. What is holding this new self back? What does this self need to blossom and grow? Imagine you are this plant, vibrant with new growth and yet still straining to feed the dead leaves of the old you. Be fearless in trimming away those old attachments and habits. Without this weight, there is nothing that you can’t do.

Answering the Call

Every day is a new call to live our lives as fully as possible. The call is subtle. Sometimes we fail to notice it. More often we fail to answer it. In so doing, we end up following the same worn path, limiting ourselves to the same doors as yesterday, last week, last year. We repeat the familiar. But even in the repetition, we crave something deeper and more meaningful. We long to answer the call to live our lives with passion, love, and a greater sense of fulfillment.

Coaching creates the necessary support to answer the call. It provides an opportunity to envision and sustain the necessary changes to live the life you were born to live.

Behind every door, every thought and action, is a path. Your path, your life, is yours to choose.