Revealing Who We Are

I hope you are all staying warm this Monday. Even here in Florida it is 33 degrees this morning! Last week I ran into a friend. She is a relatively new friend but we have made a deep connection quite quickly. The few times we have gotten together our conversations have covered a broad myriad of topics from childhood and past loves to future dreams and family drama.

As I have gotten older one of the things I notice is that these connections sometimes happen more quickly. I think that is because I know what I am looking for in a friend and when I find it, I go all in. That is the beauty of WISDOM, one of the characteristics we build with more years on this planet.

From that wisdom and understanding of who we are and what we seek friendship, there is the opportunity for another powerful gift– AUTHENTICITY. This leads me back to my story.

I ran into this friend and asked her how she was as one often does upon a greeting. She looked at me with glassy eyes and said “I know I should say I am good but I am not good.” I responded back that I didn’t want her to say “good”, rather to feel free to be honest. We stepped off to the side and talked for a few minutes. She shared what was going on and at the end she told me she felt better. I would love to say it was because I gave her some life changing advice but that was not it. What made her feel lighter was honoring where she was in that moment. Authenticity lightens our burdens and frees us. This reading speaks to exactly this and became my message to share this past week. 

Revealing Who We Are, Mark Nepo

No bird can fly
without opening its wings,
and no one can love
without exposing their heart.

It is perhaps the oldest of inner laws, as inescapable as gravity. There is no chance of lifting into any space larger than yourself without revealing the parts you hold closest to your chest. 
Any time you hesitate revealing who you are, picture yourself as a bird perched on a roof, wings tucked at your sides. To enter a relationship without opening your heart is to jump off that roof without spreading your wings. 
It’s true that baby birds hesitate the first time out of the nest, but once tasting the air, it is in their nature to open and rise, and close and land. This is their life. It is ours too. 
The paradox, of course, is that we must trust that the power to lift and land, for us, is in revealing what we hide. Once revealed, these tender things become our wings. 

Our bodies teach us so much about the practice of authenticity. We need to accept where we are in order to shift. Kindness and wisdom moves us further in this practice both on and off the mat. Resisting and fighting truly hold us back. And then there is GRATITUDE. I am so grateful for all my friendships that feed my soul and I am grateful that the universe put me there in that moment to be of service to one of them. I am grateful for all the times I have been on the receiving end of that gift and for the many more times I will be. “These tender things” really do “become our wings”.