a gem i created!
Sometimes the most courageous thing we do in a day is say, “yes.” Yes to the mess and the imperfect. Yes to looking at our children with regard, and softly saying, “You matter.” Yes to responding to our partners with eyes of compassion instead of reacting out of our habitual ways of closing off our hearts. Yes to writing one more page in the book we were born to create. Yes to treating ourselves with tenderness. Yes to the power of gentleness.
I believe that bravery isn’t about being fearless. It’s about daring to be our vulnerable, real, not-all-together selves and finding the miraculous right here within us and our everyday lives.
That’s courage.
To be vulnerable — with our own selves, with each other…to dare to say “I love you” and not hold back, to dare to move closer instead of reacting in our habitual ways by pulling back, to speak up for something we believe in even when our voice is shaky or tears come streaming down.
To be real — not someone else, not what anyone else wants or what society wants us to be…but what we KNOW in our bones is our truth. To speak it. To live it. To be it.
To be our “not-all-together-selves” — imperfect. To “mess up” and give ourselves a dose of compassion and begin again.
To find the miraculous in the mess right here — YES. If we are going to be “happy” then it’s RIGHT HERE. It has to be found right here. Not on some Caribbean island or at the bottom of a cookie jar — that’s the mind looking for happiness in the wrong place — outside of ourselves. Nope. HAPPINESS is a CHOICE. And it takes courage to orient our hearts and minds to NOTICING the miraculous RIGHT HERE in our everyday lives — the way your daughter’s eyelashes curl, the mere size and shape of your son’s growing hand (almost bigger than yours!), how the snow sparkles at night, the morning light dancing in through your windows, the softness of a blanket wrapped around you, the delight of running into a friend as you are out and about… THESE are the precious and miraculous of our day. THIS is what saves us. THIS is how we choose happiness.
To find the miraculous within us — YES. WITHIN US. So so often I hear the harsh things people tell themselves — the daily voices in one’s head incessantly saying, “You aren’t enough,” “Who are you to believe you are worth loving?”, “Why even try? You’ll mess up”…etc etc. Enough. Practice softening. Practicing being breathed. Practice gentleness.
It takes COURAGE to live this way. Why? Because we live in a culture where this isn’t the “norm.” We are wired to have a bias toward the negative. BUT we are also wired for compassion, for empathy, for making wise decisions and enlightenment. And what do I mean by “enlightenment”? Union with (however you define) the Divine.
Yes, dear ones, it takes courage to find the Divine, right here in our everyday lives. But…it is here. All around us. I see it in you — your writing, your voice, the way your hair curls, the laugh lines on your face, the boldness of your brown eyes, your aging hands, the stories you tell, the way you come up with these hilarious one liners, the courage you have to get up every morning…and love.
So keep saying YES! Yes to the mess, to loving, to softening, to the imperfect, to the unexpected, to the joy, to the sadness, to the miraculous…right here.
Love,
Lisa
** Check out this piece from a TED video on GRATITUDE… “if you do nothing else than notice the great gift this great day is…if you learn to respond as if it is the first day of your life and the last day of your life, you will have spent it well.”
Blessings,
Great post. The video was good as well. Just the pick me up I needed to say “yes” to all of the great things in front of me today on a super Saturday.
Thank you, Jonathan! I love the Superman shirt! My kiddos are way into superheroes! My husband has a superman outfit that my son “bought” him last year for his birthday! Keep on savin’ the world! Yes, this video is lovely. Every time I see it, it reminds me that gratitude it easy and available to right here if i just look around. simple. love to you, lisa
Wonderful post Lisa…. It is so much about saying “yes” to it all isn’t it? My recent poem has a little of this essence inherent in it…. Will be traveling on medical starting tomorrow … but hope to continue to read and check in often. Much love dear friend– Robyn
Oh Robyn, your words are always always so lovely and healing and deeeeeeply moving. Yes — saying yes to it all. I so thought of you when I wrote this post.
I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about you and how photography has been healing balm for you…how the practice of focusing our attention, waiting, noticing what is beautiful — what resonates with something deep within us — YES– has a way of calming the nerves, softening our bodies and our hearts and minds, and then the deep sense of delight and contentment arises in us when we look back at what we discovered as we view the pictures (or any piece of art).
I’ll be thinking of you as you are traveling. Sending blessings and light.
Love,
Lisa
Reblogged this on istopforsuffering and commented:
Simply beautiful.
Meg, thank you, dear love! You say YES every day! I am so delighted to witness this in your posts and your sharings. I’m so deeply grateful to know you!
This is a great post.
Accepting Self is an inside job. I am still an apprentice in mastering the skill of embracing all of who I am. Today, I recognize the anxiety I carry that sometimes feels like a stream flowing right under my skin. I’m practicing stopping, taking a step back, taking a deep breath and saying hello to this part of me that I’ve fought for so long. I’m embracing my anxiety and letting it be and I notice the deep well of calmness that accompanies my embrace. There is no one I would rather be than me.
Hugs, love, and gratitude to you for your beautiful words. I trust they will fall upon a lot of fertile ground.
Brenda! I just read this comment of yours. I have been out of it for a bit — I fell off of a treadmill the other day and it really knocked me for a loop. BUT…(and I’ll write about this later), the experience really created a sense of peace within me…it’s crazy. I just rested and rested and whether it was the constellation of the body’s natural morphine running through me or what, but i was totally chilled out. It brought to light a thread of anxiety that I carry with me in my everyday life. Yes, just as you say here…”a stream flowing right under my skin.” And when I stopped (really stopped) I noticed it too. Yes, just paused..and breathed with it, noticing then the well of peace rising up.
I LOVVVVE what you say here …”there’s no one I’d rather be than me!” YES YES YES! Something similar to this has been rising up in my this last year. Just so so much gratitude for absolutely everything along my path of 39 years.
Love to you. Lisa