Nurture Our Nature

I no longer expect perfect offerings before I take someone into my heart. Nor do I ask myself to live up to an illusory standard of perfection before I accept myself. Because our humanness is not built on some objectively flawless foundation. Because we cannot grow as individuals if we are only moved by perfected action. We grow in increments, learning as we go, improving as we can. Perfectionism is incongruent with the natural pace of change. This is not to say that we should be satisfied with the lowest standard, but to acknowledge that we will not develop as individuals or as a species if we do not celebrate our little victories along the way. If we keep demanding perfection, we just perpetuate our collective shame. Better to pat ourselves, and others, on the back for every step forward, however humble it may be. We are not striving to become perfect. We are striving to become real, to show up for our life in every respect, flaws and all. (~an excerpt from 'Spiritual Graffiti')

THIS is our nature.

This is where we are born again… (-from my book, ‘Hearticulations’)

A worthy exploration.

IF YOU GO WHERE THE HEART PAIN LEADS 🖤

It IS hard to get over being emotionally hurt by someone or something that happened when it cut so deep. When it opened the betrayal wound and left a reverberating, searing sting all over again. And when smaller reminders become the subsequent grains of salt keeping the wound activated. What choice do you have, other than ruminating in the agony, than to do your best to redirect your thought patterns and avoid the triggers or shift your attitude, and find relief in fresh places and activities. But when it gets to be too much to hold and you know you’re ready for it—you can go where the heart pain leads.

And if you go
where the heart
pain leads,
you may risk
entering the deep
caverns of a
secret world
where meandering shadows
converge with
pure light,
among layers
of metamorphous,
yet unfolding.

And if you follow
the heart’s wanting cry,
you might find fossils
formed long ago
near grottos of
crystal clear
streams.

You’ll see gypsum
glowing white near
colossal stalagmites,
rising from the depths
of your emotional
holdings.

Fiery crimson stone
hues swirl with
vibrational blues
inside scar tissue
and tear-soaked
ravines.

Because if you go
where the pain
wants to lead,
you may chance
finding a profound
heart restoration
when you
emerge...

I don’t like the term mental illness. Not because I don't believe that it exists, but because I worry that it keeps us focused on the symptoms and not on that which sources them. In my experience, our mental chatter and distorted thinking often originates in the unresolved emotional body. When we clear the emotional debris and heal our deep wounds, the mind settles down. The psychiatric fixation on the mind, is no different from the patriarchal spiritual fixation on the mind. Same head trip. It has a tendency to keep us looking for our healing and our awakening in all the wrong places.

https://www.change-making.com/stories-for-our-time/

Stories for our time – Change-Making.com Teaching powerdown,  What We Can Do series Stories for our time Let’s get started with a story. Really, several stories — or versions of reality, or ways people view the world. Three Stories for our time The first set comes from Joanna Macy, who refers to herself as an “ecophilosopher.” Fo...

https://www.humanegardener.com/is-your-yard-undergrown-not-overgrown/?fbclid=IwAR0NXKE291iS1wHZ_G65w9LtntVOjfu60_beTomIzlQW8UIFIcWsCxzhwuc

Is Your Yard Undergrown? - Humane Gardener For too long, industry and media have normalized meaningless, divisive terms like "overgrown." Let's take the language back.

Forgiveness is a Grieving Process Approaching forgiveness as an ongoing grieving process acknowledges its complexity and makes room for us to work at it at our own pace, say meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman. ,

the message was to keep busy. so we kept busy. sometimes out of shame, sometimes to avoid certain truths. most times to survive. to be made to feel lazy and useless if you didn’t stay busy is what we experienced on a collective level, maybe so we wouldn’t slow down and thaw. maybe to prevent us from asking the important questions. what frequency do you want to live on? how do you want to design your life around time? how is a powerful system capitalizing on my energy? what was so traumatic for me that the one thing i don’t want to do is to stop and think about it and feel into its pain, or protect myself from reliving a sense of lack? why do i think if i look busy, i am enough? what does productivity mean to you if the fruit is never within your reach? (-by Susan Frybort)