Whew… What a moment, right? I mean perpetually, yes. And in the last couple of years, certainly. But even just recently, it has all seemed increasingly and ridiculously tumultuous.

 

Tumult tends to send me inward, and so I’m just tenderly stepping back out onto this platform after an exceptionally introverted time of gestation and self-reflection.

 

What a time of testing this has been—personally, collectively, globally.

What a time of reckoning.

 

It seems like just about everyone I know and love, including myself, has been put to the test lately…whether with unexpected health emergencies, or circumstantial upheaval, or financial or relational challenges.

 

It’s been rough.

 

What a time that asks for rigorous self-reflection, generous self-compassion, ruthless truth-telling, and increasingly skillful prayers.

 

As Life continues to provide the most provocative and at times troubling mirror, what an opportunity to become ever-more still, and steady, impeccable in our word and in our actions.

 

What a time to honestly inquire into what exactly is our part of the mess to grieve and to heal, our piece to bravely stand for, our gift to bring through?

 

And I don’t necessarily mean some grand, important gesture or public offering.

 

Often, I feel my greatest offering is my simple capacity for presence.

Or my willingness to sit down, be quiet, light a candle, and listen.

Or my stubborn allegiance to love.

 

Where can we take personal responsibility inside this larger, systemic war at hand?

 

What’s our individual work to do in the presence of insidious suffering, internally and externally?

 

And what can we authentically offer, in any given moment—towards awakening, freedom, and peace?

 

Personally, these questions have found me emptying out at the altar, for months now.

 

Burning, burning, quieter, quieter still.

Emptying out, wider and deeper, clearing out from within all that is not impeccably aligned with truth.

 

Silence, Trust, and Integrity have been my most challenging, devoted teachers.

 

That might sound poetic, but in practice, it involves the grueling work of exceptional self-honesty.

 

It’s the willingness to receive the mirror that life and all my relationships provide, and to bravely take in the reflection.

 

Resisting the tendency to collapse, to dramatize, to go to sleep, or to spin out.

 

Using the most challenging triggers of my life to go deeper into stillness and silence.

 

Daring to not feed un-useful narratives.

 

It means continuously examining how it is I am lying to myself, and whether I’m willing to tell a deeper truth.

 

It means discovering true stillness in relation to fear…

 

Real discernment in relation to endless temptations to self-betray…

 

And an outrageous willingness to trust Life, God, the Mystery, myself—wholeheartedly, without condition or restraint.

 

It’s never-ending, isn’t it?

 

This call to presence, to silence; daring to embody what we know to be true.

 

This call to know who we are, to love who we are, to know what we serve, and to serve this with every breath.

 

And then to forgive ourselves and one another continuously, for all our failing and forgetting!

 

What a calling. What a task. What a challenge of a lifetime.

 

And, can I just say? A BIG shout-out to all my fellow parents of children and teenagers in this time…. And an especially deep bow of awe and empathy to my fellow single parents!

Those of us who are on this wild, tender path of personal evolution while raising the next generation! Holy moly. Talk about a true challenge!

 

So…

In honor of these themes that currently have my heart’s fervent attention, themes of:

 

Living Truly: Cultivating Real Integrity

Staying Awake while Stewarding the Next Generations of Humans

Making Medicine of the Madness

Letting Stillness Have Us

Discovering Right Relationship with Fear

Learning True Trust & Faith

 

I’m coming out of my introverted hole, and I’m going to be offering some new opportunities to gather in potent, evolutionary ways this spring and summer…

Here are my ideas for upcoming On-Line Groups, specific forms TBD:

 

A Writing Group focused on the incomparable nourishment of Writing As Medicine.

A Satsang Group on Staying Awake while Stewarding Young Humans

A Satsang Group on Living Truly & Breaking the Spell of Self-Betrayal (this will definitely be an advanced class!)

AND

A Satsang Group on Stillness, Silence, Trust & Deepening Surrender to Life

 

Do any of these resonate for you more than others? I’m curious…

 

I intend to offer all of them, in one form or another, but I’m still feeling into which comes first, starting in early May.”

 

Please feel free to email me directly if you’d like to hear more.

Thank you for all your good work, your courageous self-love, your grieving, your kindness, perseverance, and humor.

 

I meet you here, devotedly.

 

 

This love,

Jesua