I hear it.  I sense it.  Within you.  Within me.  A fire growing.  A wave forming.  A revolution of the heart-body-mind-spirit rising.

We are done putting our attention (effort, energy, time…our sacred time) into what doesn’t serve us, what doesn’t feel like “right alignment” with our truth.  We see through the marketing gimmicks of “quick fix” solutions to our longing, our restlessness, our agitation (our Sacred Agitation), our hunger.

Yet, the pull of fear is strong.  The habitual patterns within us of contracting, holding ourselves, clenching, hurrying, trying, scrounging keep us locked in our ways.  The “trance of unworthiness,” as Tara Brach says, clouds our vision.  The voice of self-doubt can be harsh and paralyzing.

We may not know HOW.  How do we pause and listen more deeply to this call – this hunger, this longing, this knowing that SOMEthing holy and true needs to rise, needs full expression, needs to be embodied?  How do we honor this revolution rising within us?  What do we do with the energies growing within us?

Within each of us there is a longing for Home.  We long to live our everyday lives aligned with the Divine Within – the Beloved Within.  We “forget” that HOME is already here.  So we go out looking (scrounging, trying, striving).  We work so so hard to “return.”

The other morning, I woke up early before anyone else. I need this alone time.  It’s my sacred space to be in the darkness, watching the sun rise, listening to the whispers of the Beloved within me that are clearer in the morning quiet than in the hustle and bustle of the day.

For awhile now I have been hearing this call – to rise, to leap, to risk.  And the other morning, it became clearer.  “What do I have to do?”

I already knew the answer, but I heard it clearly within me: “Nothing.”

“What do I have to fear?” Again, I knew the answer – in my head, but now – much deeper in my body.

Nothing.

I don’t even have to fear failure.  I can’t fail.

I don’t even have to fear not being enough or fulfilling enough or doing enough. I’m already enough. And any expression of the Sacred Aliveness within me that I open to is enough.

“You see,” the Beloved said, “Failure is impossible.”

And so, I felt myself take the hand of the Beloved…and leap.

There is a growing devotion to this Truth within me.  There is this growing sense of calm and confidence with turning toward this call of the Beloved Within – regardless of what the world thinks or how the world reacts.

I believe this is the spiritual call of a lifetime: to hear the wild invitation of the Beloved that we know as Truth…and risk following what we hear.  To remember we cannot fail.  To remember we don’t have to DO anything.  To remember that the Divine only wants to be alongside us, accompanying us.  To remember what the mystics and sages, like Rumi and Hafiz, have been saying for centuries:  god is all about delight.

Risk answering the invitation.

Risk living your life based on what is most sacred to you.

Risk delight.

Risk following what delights your heart.

And I get it.  Still the question remains – how do we do that?

We have to pause.  We have to listen within.

Because the world will pull at you, distract you, and vie for your attention.  From the moment we wake up, there are a hundred things just on our way to the kitchen that could distract us from what is most sacred to us and what delights our heart.  The world spins us into hurry.  It pulls us into numbing out and self-doubt.  It pulls our attention away from who matters most.  A day, a year, a lifetime can go by without ever really living according to what is sacred, what deeply delights our heart.

But when you pause and listen – when you cultivate this skillful habit of “showing up” AS YOU ARE in the presence of the Beloved – you’ll KNOW what is most sacred to you.  You’ll KNOW the deep delights of your heart.

And so you’ll stretch out your hand to the world, fingers spread wide, and say, “Not know, world.  Not this moment.”

And you will turn your attention to embrace this precious life of yours with a radical focus and devotion.  And you will take the hand of the Beloved and take “the next right step” – as my mom says.  And you will leap.

And your presence – a presence that is aligned with your truth – will inspire your dear ones, your community, and our world.  Not your quest for perfection.  Not your tidy and neat life.  But rather your faith in jumping into the unknown, embracing all the perfectly imperfect parts of you – shadows and light.  And you will be a healing presence for this world.

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Dear Ones, one day I asked a practitioner I was working with, “Why can’t I do this (healing work) on my own?!” I felt like I “should” be able to do it on my own, with the skills, experiences and training I have.   But she said, “Lisa, we weren’t MEANT do this this work alone.”

And she is right.  We are relational beings.  Our habitual patterns within us are strong.  And so having someone who can hold space for us is necessary for us to experience the “unlearning” of our habits and the “remembering” of our Hearts and truth.

If you feel the prompt within you for such accompaniment, please check out my offerings.  Compassion Coaching for people all over the world via Skype and Somatic Psychotherapy in person in Frederick, MD.