LIGHT

Walking amongst the foothills’ pines with a friend last Tuesday evening, I noticed that it’s getting dark out at least an hour earlier than it did a month ago. Temperatures have cooled substantially, leaves are turning, kids are doing their schoolwork, and we’ve stepped into the final fiscal quarter of 2020.

It is time, not only to savor the light outside—as it slips away--but also to turn to, and look after, the light within. 

We have experienced many months of emotional ups and downs. At times, the level of anxiety, dispondence, anger, and doubt have been unbearable. We ourselves have experienced unprecedented challenges, enormous loss, bad communication, heavy grief, confusion, outrage and despair. 

Any one of the breakdowns we’ve experienced would be enough to immobilize our progress us towards a constructive future. We could easily have been tempted to give up and become victims of the times. But “We are still here!” as Morpheus exclaims to the people of Zion in The Matrix Reloaded. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvaaGhfjrgs [listeningisthekey.us13.list-manage.com])

Elizabeth Lesser, in an interview with Oprah, said:

"You can either break down and stay broken down and eventually shut down, or you can break open. It’s a decision you make. It’s a commitment. I am going through a very hard time. I’m not going to waste this precious experience, this opportunity to become the best me.

"Through the experience of getting divorced and becoming a single mother, I lost everything—my financial security, my self-image, my support, my home. Everything changed for me. In the depth of that loss, I found out who I really was. I began to trust who I was. I began to find a genuine me that could withstand anything. And if we fight those times and fight the bud opening, we live half of a life. But when we open into our brokenness, that’s when we blossom." (p128 in The Wisdom of Sundays, 2017)

Today we say:  Let’s keep going. We can make it! You can get out of debt, you can repair that relationship, you can attain job security, you can travel, you can relax, you can live ethically and purposefully.

Exhaustion, frustration and resistance come to roost when we cannot see the future; life feels out of control.  Yet, your best bet is to let go of expectations, attachments and interpretations, especially about when relief, stability and success are supposed to materialize. In fact, the more you try to manipulate the timing of the outcomes you desire, the longer they are sure to take. He’s got the whole world in his hands; leave it to Divine timing and put one foot in front of the other in the direction that your heart and intuition take you.

Even as we inch along towards a better time, we are not out of the woods, and so we need practices to savor and nurture the light.

Keep praying, keep exercising, keep journaling, keep tracking your goals, keep treating others with compassion, keep encouraging yourself and others, keep moving forward in your tasks and projects. 

Let’s break up the obstacles of psychological pain, and free ourselves to be more of who we are meant to be: light.

If you're ready to implement what you read here, please reserve a no-cost, one-hour Gift Coaching Session in my scheduler at www.ListeningIsTheKey.com. Or just call:  303 747 4449.

Yours truly,

Martin Kettelhut, PhD

ListeningIsTheKey.com

303 747 4449

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