Everyone has rough edges right now. Soft edges have met friction until the slightest of dissonance causes hot reactions. How do you lead in times like this? When resilience is at a premium and there is a constant hum of uncertainty and exhaustion. Man, there are no easy answers to…
As we pushed our canoes into the river, the instructor said to me, “You [healthcare workers] are getting us through this pandemic and now you will teach us how to grieve.” My reflection from a recent wilderness retreat for healthcare workers. We will teach you how to grieve. A doctor…
My heart is full from days on the river in the presence of healers: the furred, feathered, flowing water kind, and the human kind. It began as a Wild idea, to provide a day in the natural world for healthcare workers and hospital chaplains, to offer a soft place to…
“Hope is the thing with feathers,” so says Emily Dickinson. “When despair for the world grows in me I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and I come into the peace of wild things.” Borrowed, of course, from Wendell Berry. When…
May the warmth of the sun kiss your skin and nourish your body. May the rains wash clean that which is ready to let go, and wrap you in a garment of undying love.
What we need around these whispered fears is to breathe deeply
allow our tender hearts to open to compassion
for ourselves, our loved ones, and all beings near and far.
If we do this right—and by that I mean with grace and compassion—perhaps we’ll see ourselves in strangers. Really see ourselves for the global family that we are.
What if surrendering was the most true and lion-hearted way of being? I know, I know, I hate it too. I shudder as I write these words being no fan of anything that smacks of giving up… or, let’s be honest here, of the sense of not being in control. But some part of me feels the truth of this.
We are a crafty lot.
And when you need to sigh or cry or fall apart
there are others here to help you pick up the pieces
and begin again. And again.
Until we tilt the circumstances
or die trying.
This beautiful world is worth it.
And you, Earth Warrior, are part of that beauty.
Herein lies Bear’s great wisdom…Purpose Matters. It matters to everyone, not just the leaders. Especially if it’s not clear why the change is happening. Perhaps there is a change in priorities based on a vision for the future. Or there is a new regulation or maybe a different protocol that creates more work, not less. It’s understandably hard to get on board with some of these changes.
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