Become: Broken

Musing…

“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” – Christopher K. Germer

Charise’s Turn:

Every now and then the shell of appearances we wear to protect our vulnerability gets too snug, too tight, too binding. That’s when you know it’s time to bust open, to drop your guard, to soften, to be more receptive and open, to break the hold of perfectionism.

A year ago I developed idiopathic sensorineural sudden hearing loss (ISSHL). While I had pinned my hopes on spontaneous recovery at the one-year mark, I still have a constant whirring, hissing and high pitched ringing with profound hearing loss in my left ear (tinnitus). I can’t turn it off or will it away. At times it wears me out, but like many physical conditions people cope with on a daily basis, it doesn’t stop me from living life fully. I’m still teaching, dancing, performing, coaching, writing, travelling, and so on, just as I did before the tinnitus. It’s mostly a private burden to transcend while attending to what I need to do, or to what is happening in my environment, and ignore the noise in my ear which will not quit.

As I write this I realize I’ve been too demanding of myself and maybe, just maybe, I need to set limits based on what I can tolerate rather than what is going on or what is expected. Instead, I pretend that I’m fine…I’m, well, performing! Holding myself accountable here -- and to give anyone reading this permission to do the same --I’m done with the show. Not done with showing up for the joy, the laughter, the learning, the challenges, the wonder, the love of family and friends; but done with the show. Self-compassion may be my new best friend.

Get Fired Up:

Show up. (period)

 “The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” – Anna Quindlen

[Both quotes taken from the book The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown]

www.coachingmoves.com

Become: Taking Flight

Musing …  

Love bursts you open  

Light Will someday split you open
Even if your life is now a cage.
 

Little by little, You will turn into stars.
Little by little, You will turn into
The whole sweet, amorous Universe.

Love will surely burst you wide open
Into an unfettered, booming new galaxy.

You will become so free
In a wonderful, secret
And pure Love That flows
From a conscious, One-pointed, Infinite Light.

Even then, my dear, The Beloved will have fulfilled
Just a fraction, Just a fraction!
Of a promise He wrote upon your heart.

For a divine seed, the crown of destiny,
Is hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain
You hold the title to.

O look again within yourself,
For I know you were once the elegant host
To all the marvels in creation.

When your soul begins
To ever bloom and laugh
And spin in Eternal Ecstasy-

O little by little, You will turn into God.       

- from the Sufi master Hafiz  (translated by Dan Ladinsky)

Kate’s Turn:      

The origin of the word change is the Old English cambium, which means “to become.” So, yes, as I change, grow and develop, I’m about becoming more of who I am. As I claim my earthly Fertile Plain, and water/nurture my Divine seed with love/light, my essence/soul blooms and takes flight. Michelangelo said that the statue already exists within the marble; he simply had to get rid of the excess. In like manner, we only need dissolve thoughts and feelings that make us miserable (our cage), and instead, follow the light/love to soar in our essence that lies within. Within the chrysalis, tiny cells, called “imaginal cells” which are wholly different from caterpillar cells, organize and eventually overtake the caterpillar life form into a butterfly form; when the need for restriction is outgrown, the butterfly, with one deep, full breath, “pops” the chrysalis and takes flight (from Anodea Judith’s Waking the Global Heart). I am in wonder this summer in beholding all the divine seeds that have taken form, have become, and blossomed the essence which the tiny seed held – millions of flowers, blossoms, birds, bees - love has burst them open.

Get Fired Up:    

Find a feather, have it take your heart seed to flight. What is the light/love that it needs in order to “pop” the chrysalis/cage that restricts your soaring? We are sunbeams of the Great Light – we are waves in the ocean of Being. Be the star that you are!!!                                                                                                                                                                          

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." -Charles Du Bos

www.kroskalifecoaching.com