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When I am no longer embroiled in the battle to conquer fear, I "beat" fear. It's when I don't need to get rid of the problem that the problem loses its power over me.How does this dynamic apply to you? In your relationship with yourself and your life's unfolding? To your relationships with others? To your relationship with whatever it is that you fear, be it aloneness, uncertainty, or death?

Some more wonderings on whatever love might be . . .

More on the work of loving by listening, committing to "being with" one another and ourselves in all our contradictions and complexities.

How much of what we do is motivated by the unconscious belief that we do not belong, just as we are? What is it, to rest, deeply and fully, in the unconditional belonging that is the inheritance of every human? Where have you begun to believe that you do not, in fact, belong? What are the consequences of your subscription to this belief?

Who would you be and how would you be if you knew, beyond all doubt, that you are loved, exactly as you are? Not for what you've done, but for you. Your simple, inexplicable, mysterious, and miraculous presence here. Who would I be, if I lived this way? Who would we become if we saw each other this way, loved each other? This session is a wondering on love.

Love, the end. Love, the way. For God's sake, for mine and yours and all our sakes, give the love you've been given to give. And receive the love that has come for you.

Jamming on my bread 'n' butter: trustworthy listening, y'all. What is this kind of communication? What does it make possible? What does it ask of us? Why does it matter? A ramble in the listening fields, a wander in the heart.

More wonderings about love...

What is relationship? How is separation a critical part of living with anyone or anything? In this ramble, I dive into the etymology for guidance. 

A wondering on sincerity. Why does the prospect of being sincere threaten us? Why is it so rare? What even is it? What becomes unavailable without the audacious, open, and subversive willingness to trust and protect your sincerity?

"To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you." - Henri Nouwen

What are the consequences of believing in mastery? What if our mess were our greatest gift, our most potent teacher, our medicine? In a culture plagued by a mass conscription to the futile and needless enterprise of striving after an imagined and ever-elsewhere state of mastery, we each must name and claim our mess if we are ever to heal and become fully human together. 

The etymological meaning of the word "vulnerable" is "to be capable of being wounded." Is there ever a moment in which you are not capable of being wounded? As humans, vulnerability is not something we can choose to be. It's what we are. Paradoxically, it is only when we are finally willing to be what we are that we are set free from the prison of what we are not. We have been told that it is dangerous to be vulnerable. I'd ask you: What are the costs of pretending not to be?

What are the costs and consequences of believing you need to know the answers to your questions?

Paying close attention to your mind, you may notice that you are not in control of your thoughts. They come and go as they please. Some would say that although we are not in control of our thoughts, we have agency over our response to them. But is that true? What aspects of reality are we truly in control of, if any? This episode is a wondering on the dynamic of control.

This session is another wondering on how to navigate the thoughts that cause us harm when we believe them. We are ill-equipped in the journey toward peace if we do not have access to our sword of no, and if we have abandoned the wisdom of knowing when to wield it with fierce compassion.

The thoughts that cause you suffering are there to be investigated, understood, accepted, and loved. But sometimes these thoughts invite us to learn how to say no, with a ferocity inspired by the great love for what you have been entrusted to protect: yourself, your heart, your being. This is the wrathful deity inside you, the one who knows how to embody the no in such a way that ends the battle, ends the conversation, ends the suffering thought.

The word "angel" comes from the Greek word "angelos," meaning "messenger." What if anxiety isn't a problem in need of fixing, but rather an angel, arising with a message for you, guidance on where to go next and how to get there? In this session, I wonder about anxiety and gratitude, interdependence and the interplay of giving and receiving. I mention my friend and mentor Ashley Jansen in this episode. Check out her work at www.souldivers.net.

"There is a kind of fear that's guiding. Maybe fear is always guiding, it's always telling you something, and the trick is to listen for what's the message. What is it actually telling me? Is it true that this feeling of fear is telling me to run away, or is it an invitation to get closer?" In this session, I wonder about wonder, fear, the unknown, doubt, the skill of discernment, and relationship.

In this session, I wonder about beginnings, and a bit about silence, too.