A new rhythm for new times

Some of you know that my customary way to just stop has been to break bones. Yes, sometimes two, or sprain both feet! All amount to a full stop. Enforced! No negotiation!

I'm not kidding. The day I was to start my Transformational Speaking book tour, I broke bones in both legs and was confined to bed for a week until the swelling subsided and I could be trussed up. (My friend Lisa called it "extreme avoidance.")

Then when I launched Transformational Speaking Online, I broke my hip in the middle of our series of 8 weekly community calls. I didn't see my home again for nearly 3 weeks.

When my dear friend Margaret died, I missed two stairs and her memorial service in San Miguel de Allende when I sprained both feet.

In the shamanic path, we know that breaking a bone is about breaking a pattern. It was clear to me in all the above cases that my pattern was to move too fast to pay attention to what my body and soul were telling me. Here's what happened: [continue reading ...]

In Transformational Speaking, we stand where we are in our story on the JourneyWell™ Wheel of Growth and Change. The place of the greatest transformational potential is in the West, where we complete or abandon a plan. Sometimes it is by choice, and other times we are forcibly stopped from our pattern of moving quickly to what's next. Instead, we are pulled into the Well to "let go and grieve."

That begins an inner journey where we first withdraw, then self-renew, seek support, and ultimately experiment with new possibilities. From there a new dream is born that results in a new way of navigating our outer journey moving forward.

There is no time frame for this journey. It takes what it takes. It is just as uncertain as today's journey of descent with the coronavirus.

For those of you working even harder at this time on the front lines, I thank you. And for those of you wondering where your work will come from, there is a different kind of disruption. All of us are navigating a non-negotiable life experience that requires we let go of our plans.

I offer the same words given to us by David Waggoner in his poem Lost.

Stand still. This time of initiation is a powerful stranger asking us to meet ourselves in a new way. It is far more than an economic reset; it is a values reset if we allow it to guide us to a new story for ourselves and for our world.

May we honor the inner journey and mine it for its gifts in this time of such severe outer disruption. Renegotiate commitments. Refresh your spirit. Express the Medicine you are. Be kind. Love your people. Your animals. Each other. And of course the natural world!

May we listen deeply for the new story that is emerging.

All love,

Open your heart. Choose power over force. Inspire the impossible. And change the world - one audience at a time.