A Container to Live Within :: A Poem, A Practice

it won't ever be perfect
not in the way that you or i think of perfect
but it will be everything that it is
and we will feel it all like an accordion
in and out, loud and soft, high and low...
weathered

this life thing has been around for quite some time
cycling and circling
dancing like a child under her very own arm
you can dance like that, too
hardly knowing, in your mind, what you're doing
mostly flowing
mostly following
something bigger inside of you
far too large to be contained
far too free to stay small
far too strange to be known in words

but you can know it--
your natural rhythm
the way your everything wants to flow
the way your body wants to go
the direction, the devotion
that you move within
when you get out of your own way
when you accept your form of play
when you play
when you play
when you play

stepping back or holding in
shrinking away or never beginning--
i have my limits
for now, for now
i do

but underneath my mind's desire
to be everything good and glorious
to hold on to that tempting perfect that isn't real--
which takes me nowhere juicy or true--
there is a surrender
an exhale
a relief
like age-old eyes looking up from a bed
just before their final closing--

you will get what you need
even if it is crappy
believe me,
you will get what you need

in this moment
on this earth
a light will flicker from a pocket mirror
into the pupil of your eye
and show you
if you will look
you will see
if you will follow
you will be free



~~~~~~~~~~~~



It's a practice. A big one. A bold one. An opening that changes everything--to really come home to your natural rhythm and easy flow. It's simple, but it's anything but small. And I'm knee deep in the practice, soaking in the most enlivening moments of honesty, humility & humor.

If this practice is calling to you, too--if you know it's your time to come home to yourself and come all the way out, I'd be honored to support you along the way. For the sake of the little stuff & the big stuff--a happier body & healthier relationships, deeper peace-of-mind & less stress in the check-out isle, a job that fits you & jeans that fit you. It's all about coming home & coming out.

Check out 31 for 31, a coaching special that I'm running during the month of August. We might just be meant for each other. This might just be that flicker of light.

madlove & swirling respect,
rachael

Radically Open Hearts & The Real Power to Change the World

What if your vision were so big, so holy, that you actually called on 1 billion people to dance in the streets until the violence STOPS?

What if you knew that our capacity for healing and our desire for a new world were actually that strong?

--That we've just been waiting all these years for someone to call us into our power?

I'm dumbfounded and speechless over Eve Ensler--in my opinion, one of the most revolutionary humans on Earth today. No vision is too big. No dream unattainable.

I mean--her life vision is to actually END violence against women, globally.

No half-hearted dreams for this woman. She's TIRED OF WAITING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DREAM BIG. She's tired of WAITING for other people to come around about rape and violence in their own sweet (and lagging) time.

She's opened her heart so wide, so fearlessly, so boldly--that she's actually trudging through resistance and doubt--walking right past those voices of "reason" that say it'll never happen; war and rape and violence against women will always be reality.

Those voices of "reason" come from a deeply rooted source of denial--denial over the truth about how ugly and horrendous things have been for women (and men, and all living things). But there's no denial for Eve Ensler.

You can't deny the stories when they're told to you. You can't deny the broken woman standing before you, bullet through her head, genitalia in her hands. You simple cannot deny what you are shown in broad daylight.

This is the gift Eve Ensler has been given: she is shown the ugliest of truths.

But we are all given a gift. It's how we respond that makes us geniuses, or not.

What makes Eve Ensler a genius? What's her bedrock for complete and utter world-shaking instigation?

She has this thing down:

"The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned." -Antonio Gramsci 

She sees the truth and says "fuck it" in the same breath. Whatever she believes possible, is. She goes for it.

In this case--she insists on a better world for women; a world of peace, embodied.

Watch this video. Watch the glow around Eve as she talks: she knows so much how holy she is, how holy life is, and how much power we really have. She's going for the gold.



Tell me, friends. What would you really go for if you knew that anything were possible? That the world has been waiting and the time is NOW for embodiment?

When you fear yourself... and there's nowhere else to turn.

Turn in.

What's asking to be born?
What part of you, in hiding, is just dying to see the light of day?
Who would you let yourself be, if you knew you'd be loved unconditionally?

Your partner, lover, friends, family--they won't always know how to love you without pause.
But hiding does not make you immune from judgement.
Denying who you are does not free you up to be liked, loved, admired, or praised.

It's a ruthless world of energy and emotion.
Our happiness, our joy, our satisfaction--is because we choose to open.
--Open to all that we are, all that is, all that will be and has been.
We open authentically, with acceptance, tenderness and love blazing the trail.

It's not an easy opening, always. Especially not at first.
New habits take time and practice.
But closing off is no safe bet, either. 

After all, you may know the impulsive rage of constantly fidgeting for the next distraction.
You may know the fatigue that comes when you never stop swimming.
You may know the disappointment that comes when you never dive in at all.

And then, there's opening.
There's learning how to be with every impossibly beautiful and unlikely but loveable part of yourself.
There's learning that there's no real difference between one thing and the next.
We're all made up of love--all of us--every part.

That's why when I coach, I almost always ask my clients to be with this question:

If I loved and accepted every part of who I am, what would I stand to gain?

Journal on this question for 30 days, I tell them. Walk with it. Let it sink into your psyche just as you're about to go back into auto-pilot. See what shifts for you. For me, this tiny question moves mountains--opens me to a resounding truth on a pathway toward my next bold move.

from a cozy couch with quiet rain fall behind me and this song on repeat...
madlove and sweetness,
rachael