It’s the beginning of February and as I write this blog, it is a bright and crisp winter day. I have just come back from my morning walk with Carlie who now smells like the fresh outdoors, and my cheeks are rosy and cold! I feel alive and ready for what the Sacred will collaborate and design with me this month. Last month I invited each of you to discover and design your 2013, listening for the main theme that will guide you this year. I too listened and clarified my new focus for 2013.
As people have started to work through my Wisdom’s Way to ‘Right with the Light’ Joy-Fully Living in 2013 workbook, they have been sharing the themes that have been emerging. They include such spiritual adventures as ‘commitment’, ‘collaboration’, ‘transformative connection’, ‘the destiny of my purpose’, living the question: ‘what shall we create today Goddess?’ or ‘heart-full self care’, ‘right consciousness’ of leadership and ‘inner strength’! How can our lives not change?
So now that we are clear on our new focus, what is our next step?
Opening to a new self acceptance of who we are and where we are. Self Acceptance requires us to have a compassionate relationship with ourselves, seeking out what is delightful about ourselves. It also calls us to be honest with ourselves, doing away with the more subtle layers of denial we barely know are hiding in the layers of our heart and cells. These deeper practices of self acceptance ask us to be courageous enough to explore the inner realms of our heart – the bliss and the pain. This new space of self acceptance asks us to ‘know thyself’ and affirm the whole essence of who we are. In this honest place, self acceptance becomes the nature of surrender itself. Surrender to what is opens the door to what can be!
The powerful gift of having a 22 yr old cat and a 1 yr old puppy is that both companions respond to the energy which my inner life is projecting, not the words I outwardly say. Yet, they still deeply and unconditionally accept me (though they seem quite open to expressing their sentiments about my behaviour when needed). I suppose as a 22 yr old cat, you have the right to state what change is required! The truth is that I cannot become more lovable or acceptable to the Heart of the Divine. I’m already unconditionally acceptable and loved. So to move vibrantly toward my goals and live my ‘theme’, I need the momentum that self acceptance promises me to get there! And that is the place where heart-full surrender arises from within gentling my path and my own inner dialogue.
Whether you live here in Ontario, or some other place internationally, there are many places to practice and learn and grow through self acceptance. Look at all the opportunities our calendar gives us this month to heal and nurture self acceptance: A day to celebrate love and friendship (14th), a day to celebrate family (18th in Ontario), a day to celebrate International Social Justice (20th) (a United Nations initiative), and a day which begins spiritual purification and preparation for New Life (13th Ash Wednesday).
As you open to deeper self acceptance this month, what deeper level of honest dialogue with yourself is needed that opens your awareness to your delight? Who accepts you so much they will tell you the truth of what is in your inner heart so you have the opportunity to grow and realize your dream? Go and breathe the fresh air of self acceptance and surrender into your truth. It will make you feel alive!