Little Moments ☀️ ⛅️ ⛈

A short while ago, I felt the sun streaming through the window (not a common occurence during a northern Michigan February)! ☀️   I closed my eyes for a moment to fully absorb the comfort of the warmth.

Now, the same sky through the same window is clouded and gray.  

My face, however, still radiates the warmth.  

It offers a reminder...Even in the gray moments, there is access to the warmth, hope, love, and joy that has been absorbed before.

Whether you are in a moment of full sunlight, the darkest of storms, or somewhere in the gray between...how are you absorbing and retaining the "warmth"?

This was a recent focus with the amazing women in the Chrysalis Collective.  

Within the collective, participants choose the topics for Transformation Workshops that are most salient and useful for their lives.  As we dove into tools strategies to counter the brain's negativity bias, they shared the shift from feeling down, tight, frustrated, and worried to feeling a sense of light, liberation, freedom, comfort, and possibility.  

It didn't erase the challenges in their lives...it gave them an opportunity for a reprieve, a rebalancing, and an access to the part of their wisdom, abilities, creativity, and brilliance that best enables them to address these difficulties.

It provided assurance that they have accessible strategies to revisit this state more and more easily.

Through the support of their deep presence with themselves and with one another, they create and move into a vision for their lives that includes more joy, health, wellbeing, impact, and connection despite continuing to live and work in a persistently unjust world.  

This power in emotional freedom and resilience has been similarly evident when I support my daughter in receiving devastating news.  

Her movement through questions, tears, and hugs, into singing in the bath, dancing around the living room, and counting minutes toward her Read-a-Fun goals inspired me to be playful in creating a simple rhyme.

Little Moments

Soak in the sunshine

Cry the tears

Reflect back

On all the years

Smile a little

Laugh a lot

Note what has changed

And what has not

Ask the questions

Hold on tight

Absorb the love

Relieve the bite

Feel the water

Wash you clean

Sing and dance

Prepare to dream

Time keeps passing

Clouds float by

Take a breath

Let knots untie

In a minute

All could shift

Honor this moment.

It's a gift.

I offer this to you not as a literary masterpiece, but as a gentle reminder that you, too, can benefit from the simple moments.  Invite in questions, tears, and anguish alongside dancing, singing, and...if you're anything like my daughter, lobbying for a pet.  😂🐈 😂🐕 😂

As you weather your current storms, and those yet to come, may you soak in the sun whenever you catch a glimpse and continue to feel its warmth when it moves (temporarily) out of view.

Music is one of the forms of comfort that can speak to any emotion you need to feel or express.

Tracy Chapman has long been one of my favorites, so if it nourishes you, here she is singing Stand By Me.  Through the storms and into the light, I stand by you, your worth, your value, and your impact as you engage in the difficult and demanding process of witnessing, experiencing, and addressing repeated social and racial injustice.  ❤️‍🩹

May you feel the light reflected back of your own brilliance.

You matter.  You make a difference.  I'm so thankful you're here.