A new rhythm for new times

Some of you know that my customary way to just stop has been to break bones. Yes, sometimes two, or sprain both feet! All amount to a full stop. Enforced! No negotiation!

I’m not kidding. The day I was to start my Transformational Speaking book tour, I broke bones in both legs and was confined to bed for a week until the swelling subsided and I could be trussed up. (My friend Lisa called it “extreme avoidance.”)

Then when I launched Transformational Speaking Online, I broke my hip in the middle of our series of 8 weekly community calls. I didn’t see my home again for nearly 3 weeks.

When my dear friend Margaret died, I missed two stairs and her memorial service in San Miguel de Allende when I sprained both feet.

In the shamanic path, we know that breaking a bone is about breaking a pattern. It was clear to me in all the above cases that my pattern was to move too fast to pay attention to what my body and soul were telling me. 

In the case of my book tour, those TV appearances were cancelled.

But it was during the 2009 economic downturn, and the night before I dreamed those interviews were not going to be productive and were interchangeable with a cooking show!

In the case of my online launch, I found out my 50 participants wanted more time between calls and were relieved to have three extra weeks for the deep dive the course was inspiring!

As for Margaret’s memorial, I needed space to grieve and was grateful for today’s technology that allowed me to record my remembrances to bring my presence to that sacred gathering.

As I look back, I recognize that all the commitments I made – and had to break– came from love and vision. I was yet to learn the refinement of checking back in when my body and soul were suggesting I alter my plans. My commitment to my word felt like the highest value, and it did not occur to me to renegotiate my promises until my physical body left me no choice.

In Transformational Speaking, we stand where we are in our story on the JourneyWell™ Wheel of Growth and Change. The place of the greatest transformational potential is in the West, where we complete or abandon a plan. Sometimes it is by choice, and other times we are forcibly stopped from our pattern of moving quickly to what’s next. Instead, we are pulled into the Well to “let go and grieve.”

The descent into the Well begins an inner journey where we first withdraw, then self-renew, seek support, and ultimately experiment with new possibilities. From there a new dream is born that results in a new way of navigating our outer journey moving forward.
There is no time frame for this journey. It takes what it takes. It is just as uncertain as today’s journey of descent with the coronavirus.
For those of you working even harder at this time on the front lines, I thank you. And for those of you wondering where your work will come from, there is a different kind of disruption. All of us are navigating a non-negotiable life experience that requires we let go of our plans.

I offer the same words given to us by David Waggoner in his poem Lost. 

Stand still. This time of initiation is a powerful stranger asking us to meet ourselves in a new way. It is far more than an economic reset; it is a values reset if we allow it to guide us to a new story for ourselves and for our world.
May we honor the inner journey and mine it for its gifts in this time of such severe outer disruption. Renegotiate commitments. Refresh your spirit. Express the Medicine you are. Be kind. Love your people. Your animals. Each other. And of course the natural world!

May we listen deeply for the new story that is emerging.

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