Less Push. More Breath.

Oct 30

The energy out there is tense, my friends.

Are you feeling it?

I’m feeling it.

It’s in the daily texts begging for just ONE MORE donation to a campaign fund.

It’s in the pleas to join ONE MORE phone bank or volunteer event. It’s in the inflammatory and fear-mongering headlines, sound bites, and clickbait. It’s in too many conversations devolving into political predictions, analysis, and debate.

I can feel it in my throbbing neck and shoulders.

I notice it in my racing thoughts. I hear it in my snippy words to my husband and kids. I see it in my desire to keep pushing. And pushing.

Fortunately, I found my way back to civil rights leader, educator, and author Valarie Kaur yesterday. Or she found her way back to me.

Offset lithograph portrait of Valarie Kaur, who has long dark hair and golden skin, is gazing off to the right with a subtle smile and hopeful look in her eyes. The background is light blue and the phrase "See No Stranger" is in the left corner. — Portrait of Valarie Kaur by Shepard Fairey

Her words of wisdom (paraphrased and adapted) are guiding me like a beacon right now:

We’ve been building and using our toolkits. We’ve been out there, in the struggle, day after day. Trying to make the nation safer for the next generation.
We’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing. We’ve been breathless, always leaning forward.
Pushing, pushing, pushing.
And sometimes we feel that we can’t use any tools in our kit, that they just aren’t enough or aren’t working anymore. We feel we aren’t strong enough to do this anymore. To keep going.
We need to listen to the wisdom of the midwife: She doesn’t say, “Push all the way.”
She says, “Breathe, my love, then push, then breathe again.”
There’s a kind of cadence, a kind of rhythm to sustain one’s energy in any long labor.
Sometimes we forget how to breathe.
We just keep pushing so much, we keep grinding our bones into the earth, we keep comparing our suffering to the people we are serving.
So we stop and take our first deep breath in a long, long time.
What if?
What if this is not the darkness of the tomb?
What if this is the darkness of the womb?
What if our America is not dead, but a country still waiting to be born?
What if all our ancestors, with all they survived, are behind us now?
Whispering in our ears, “You are brave. You are brave.”
What if the story of America is one long labor, a series of expansions and contractions?
So this is our sacred task.
To simply show up, because this is our turn in the cycle.
Just like labor, every time we show up, we are creating more space than there was before.
Every crisis feels like the last contraction, and yet, every cycle, there are more of us than ever before. More of us awake to our oneness. More of us longing for a world of belonging.
We see glimpses of the nation that is to be born.
Then we remember the wisdom of the midwife. “Breathe,” she says.
And then push.
The final stage in birthing labor is the most dangerous and the most painful.
It feels like dying. It’s so breathless, the crises keep coming.
The contractions keep coming, we can’t even take a breath.
It feels like dying, and yet, that final stage is the stage that precedes the birth of new life.
It is called Transition.
We are in transition now.
As a nation and as a species.
Our lives are unfolding in this era of great transition.
And no one goes to battle alone.
No one goes to birth alone.
We need our people.
We need our midwives by our side.
We need our ancestors at our backs.

We can be vulnerable and courageous together. Each of us has a separate role, a different role in the labor.
And we can ask ourselves, in the deepest wisdom inside of us, What is my role? What role do I want to play, in this moment in history, in this era of great transition?
To see other people stand up courageously gives us the power to do it, too. And we can only do that in community.

As you reflect on Valarie Kaur’s words, I ask you:

In these last days leading up to the election and afterward, how might you be vulnerable and courageous?
How will you be in community?
In what ways will you take care of yourself and stay connected to others?
Where will you stop pushing and find your breath?

Here are some offerings to help you respond to these questions:

My Release and Rest gathering this Sunday, Nov. 3, from 3-5pm
We will begin with optional active movement to release any intense energy, share reflections/hopes/gratitudes, then work toward grounding in our bodies as we close with an extended guided rest practice.

My Community Rest Sessions each Wednesday from 7:00-8:15pm
Depending on what happens Tuesday, we might be adding a celebration dance to our next gathering! Either way, we will be in community supporting each other.