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Stand Together

Stand Together

My heart is heavy as I write this love letter to you. The state of our world has me heart-broken and sad. There I said it.

It is not wrong to have feelings, it’s not bad to have strong feelings. After decades of anxiety and belly aches, I learned the hard way that not all feelings are equally received in the open public. For many, many, too many years, I stifled, denied and ignored my feelings (hence, the belly aches!). Fearing that someone might see me as less valuable if they knew my true heart. Especially if those feelings were on the “shady side” of my sunny persona. 🙂

What I know now is that the sooner I can “be with” whatever I am feeling, the sooner I can see IT as having a separateness from who I am. In other words, when I can pause long enough to feel #allthefeels, and tap into compassion, the easier I can distinguish what I am experiencing as separate from who I am being. My value and worth are maintained even if my behavior or actions need to change.

It’s okay to re-read that last paragraph, it’s a doozy! The point is who we are is never tarnished by what we do or what we experience. Yogis call this sense of Self the Atman, our inner-most perfect, divine spark. For me, just thinking about this philosophy (whether or not I completely understand or even agree with it) helps me remember my value and self-worth.

So this love letter is really an invitation. An invitation to stand together and hold one another. An invitation to practice compassion for ourselves and others where ever we are in the journey of living our best selves.

Within this invitation is also permission to be true to your story. If you need to be held, ask someone to hold you. If you need to be heard, ask someone to listen. If you need to be seen, stand in the light. If you need someone to ask, I can be that someone, a witness for you. It would be an honor. Let us stand together. Let us hold one another. Let us live and love with our whole hearts and our best selves.

Let us… Breathe deeply, move freely, labor lovingly and live vibrantly,

-Kimberlyn