“When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.” – Jimmy Carter
Today is voting day in the United States and yet we know it impacts the whole world. The election is happening during a time of great turmoil and division in this country. Our communities and our hearts are tender, and some of us are scratching our heads too – a bit baffled and confused by such extreme divisions. Some of us are shaking in our boots with fear over the next 48 hours and the reactions, no matter what happens…
We all have our own views, values, and hold dear what’s truly important to us. And we also need to tend our own soul space. During cycles like this – our consciousness is projected so far out into the field – checking with friends, posting, panicking, hoping, praying and “THINKING” about each state and the numbers and polls. It is a very ‘externalized’ emotional roller coaster, and we may need to tend the internal roller coaster a bit today. I will share below a few thoughts about navigating that space.
I am here today to encourage you to vote if you haven’t and to feel yourself as part of the voice of democracy. To really FEEL a part of it regardless of what you may fear about it. It can be challenging to feel that your vote and voice matters, due to the Electoral process and all the fraud stuff and the feeling of things being rigged. And for many of us, we carry a deep desire to feel that this nation is being guided by human beings with a heart for the world.
I just want to affirm for you – that it matters to YOU and your own SOUL to know that you have contributed towards shaping a future that truly matters to you.
IF you are looking for something to focus on today – here is a re-run of a complimentary class called MAGI that I led earlier this year – so that as you work on this, you tend your own soul.
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Red Thread Letter #828
Tending Your Own Soul
Dear Ones,
Let me start by saying – May Love Be At The CENTER of ALL CHOICES and that I am sending YOU LOVE. Feel it? This love is real and right now.
Tending your own soul may be required. And to do that, a look at how you relate to yourself may be helpful. The topic of the internal voice and external voice, and the internal self and the self we are out in the world, is a major part of my teaching in Intentional Creativity. My experience is that people often don’t make a clear distinction, collapsing the two and also creating fragmentation between them. It is a complex topic, but it is relevant today.
Let me see if I can make it simple – as this is about an experience of self, not the science part, but how we feel part.
There is the hidden within self that is connected with the soul, the voice you speak with (inside your head).
Often that within self is majorly shaped over time by ‘outside’ influences of parents, leadership, organizations, culture, etc… So the ‘outside voices of others’ often shape the inside self and we don’t even know it is happening.
Then when we begin to awaken to our RIGHT to think for ourselves, and do our own work to recover from those outside voices. In time we begin to develop and strengthen our inside voice so we can hear for real, how we feel.
Feeling how you really feel tends to your own soul. Yet choosing to not let those feelings be so overwhelming and de-stabilizing means you CHOOSE to actively tend.
How this relates to today: When tensions are high and PTSD is triggering all over the place, the inside self and the outside self are panicking together about external circumstances. Yet the only circumstances you can curate, are the ones inside of you. The feeling can be overwhelming and anxiety producing. If you can pause and connect with the wisdom of the inside voice….and listen to what you need….instead of letting the external circumstances define your experience…then that is a starting place.
There is plenty of real fear, real danger, and real caution and grief, and all kinds of emotion swirling and that is valid. Yet tending your own soul is the first place to do your work. And when your soul knows you have spoken your voice, find some peace in that you are a part of democracy no matter what the outcome. This seed of peace supports you in navigating the rough terrain happening – ‘out there’ as well as how your internal voice chooses to show up ‘out there’. You get to choose.
Engage in the way that is best for your soul. Do art, dance, call a friend, go for a walk. Try not to stay glued to the tube or phone. You will not change the outcome with you panic – know this – and instead, tend you.
I am writing you this morning on Day 3 of VIVID 2020 our Global Intentional Creativity Gathering of over 200 women. I will tell you so far that Vivid has been unbelievably amazing and I can’t wait to see how the rest of our weeklong Rites of Passage unfolds… Anasuya Isaacs, a cherished Intentional Creativity student, came from Arizona to MUSEA in California just so we could be together for the event, and also this election cycle. She is the MC along with the amazing Mary MacDonald. I am so grateful to lead this event with such incredible women!
I will also tell you it has been a labor of love for me and my team beyond our imagining to bring this experience into the cosmic realm… Even after teaching online for 20+ years, I have never created a virtual event of this magnitude. It goes to show that nothing can stop us from gathering, especially during a time like now when there is much turmoil in the world and we can all use a reprieve with our canvas and brush!
I am here in your inbox today with encouragement to exercise your right to vote, especially if you are a woman. Women were given the right to vote in the United States in 1920, which really wasn’t that long ago – only 100 years. I feel it’s important for us to have the experience of voting, no matter if we have lost faith in the systems. To just show up and participate in the collective weave of our future – especially now when so much is at stake on every level.
In October 2018 I wrote a letter called “Who are we? Thoughts on being a United States citizen at this time”. After reading this letter again nearly two years later, it’s shocking to me how so many of the tragedies I wrote about are still happening – many on a greater scale than they were back then. Why over two years has so little change happened? Why are we still prioritizing profit over human progress? Why are we still allowing our food to be poisoned and our water to be contaminated? Why is violence against women and people of color not being treated as a global pandemic as much as the one we are currently facing right now?
I don’t know the answers. I don’t know when or if things will change in my lifetime the way I pray every day they will, yet this quote from Margaret Mead does provide me some solace and I hope it does for you too… “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
With love from my heart to yours along the red thread,
Me and Jonathan in 2018 voting during the San Francisco elections. My mail in ballot never showed up so we drove two hours to make it happen. Sometimes it takes being unreasonable to get it done. Vote! Be unreasonable!
Will your Sacred Studio Space be featured in our Museum?
I AM MUSEA ART CALL – Entries due November 9
You are invited to participate in our first virtual museum show featuring the Sacred Studio Spaces of our community!
This juried show is a call for a photograph of an intentional still-life scene of your studio that highlights your creative space as sacred space.
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