My 2021 Holiday Message for You

“All doubt, despair and fear become insignificant, once the intention of life becomes love.” Rumi

Recently, I attended a virtual storytelling evening with the theme “Mental Health”. The host, introducing the event, said the title was “kind of whaw whaw” and “not upbeat”. I can’t now remember the cheerful alternative title for the evening. I do remember my feelings of confusion and disappointment.

We, the virtual attendees, were encouraged to initialize our cameras to be a more actively present audience for the brave story tellers. I kept my camera off. I was exhausted and I’d been crying. My last client prior to the event had had a powerful breakthrough as she handed back a lifetime of pain to those in her long past to whom it really belonged. We, my client and I, were simultaneously in tears of joy, relief and wonder. A shared recognition of healing and hope as, in one breath the pain was there, and in the next it was gone.

Granted, there’s a lot about personal growth that’s a steep, uphill slog. Nevertheless, there are also those transcendent moments, born of exquisite courage, for which “upbeat” can’t begin to do justice.

The woman hosting the story telling event is infinitely lovely and kind. I’m sure she was aiming for a festive mood for a holiday experience. I, for one, however, champion the belief that angel choirs sing when we soldier through the storm, often with faltering steps, yet with dogged determination, because we refuse to see giving up as an option. We then travel far enough to break through into that incandescent light of finding Self that was waiting for us so very very long in the clearing beyond the earthquakes and torrents. To me, “mental health” sounds glorious.

Therapy is just one road. We grow through countless paths, removing obstacles between who we’ve come to believe we are in our hurt and fear and bitter disappointments, and the Spark of Life. What the priceless meditation teacher, Stephen Levine called “that place within each of us that is uninjured and uninjurable”. It is that place where we share oneness with all of life and creation. Coming home to our true Self is the most upbeat thing I know. It often brings me to tears.

The recently departed composer, Stephen Sondheim, said, “Anything you do, let it come from you. Then, it will be you.” I am blessed with a calling that necessitates me coming home to myself. What intrigues me is how often returning is needed. We all wander. May we each find our center again and again, soften our heart and breathe peace.

May we hold our precious Earth and one another close and tender.

God keep us calm, soft and strong in the storm,

Jeanne