Soul Expression

I recently read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. If you've read it, you know. You know how heart wrenching it is. You know it's impossible to get through this book without navigating the terrain of your own grief for our broken world and for our brothers and sisters who suffer the greatest atrocities within it. As I was reading this novel that portrays a war torn country, and the atrocities inflicted by the Taliban, I stopped frequently to initiate conversations with my partner--mostly needing to vent my anger towards people who sadistically harm others "in the name of God". Nothing--I mean NOTHING--is more absurd to me than this. If you are committing violence in the name of God, you know nothing of God. This book riled me up and stirred my pot in big ways. My partner would roll his eyes and say, "You've got to stop reading this book". He didn't understand why I would choose to read something so profoundly horrific--why I would want to imm...

In ancient shamanic cultures, if a medicine man or woman was approached by a person complaining of feeling disheartened, dispirited or depressed the shaman would ask these questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence? I heard this lovely message several weeks ago from a beloved teacher of mine while visiting a yoga center in Massachusetts. It resonated with me deeply--for its simplicity, for its truth. I arrived closed and constricted. Angry and impatient. Frustrated and annoyed. The divisiveness, the polarity in our world at this time was getting to me. I was stagnating in my judgment and frustration. I was over people and their shit. Surrounded by the beautiful Berkshire mountains I couldn't find my center. In wonderfully led yoga classes I couldn't find my center. And then I danced. Oh I danced! I danced from my root--heavy and ...

Here's the thing about the work I do as a translator for spirit--when I sit with a client in a session, I don't get the cocktail party version of their life. (Everything's great! Work is fine, the kids are great, we are picking new paint colors for the kitchen!) I get the raw, the real, the nitty-gritty. Nobody is paying me to talk about paint colors. They want to know how to navigate the trauma they have from being abused. They want to know how to navigate the relationships that aren't serving them. They want to know how to deal with their child who is on drugs. And at the core of all of these challenges that people face, is judgment and shame. People are judging themselves as failures or as falling short because their life is not perfect, because they aren't "measuring up" to some version of success that equates to "having it all together". I'll tell you right now, if you wanted to go through your entire life having it all together, yo...