A note about FREEDOM

My 4th of July Newsletter – shared here because I had so many responses to it. 

Hello Beautiful Readers,

This morning I’m encountering a multitude of emotions. First, there is a sense of delight for shipping on a year-long promise to msyelf. Finally! I recorded my first podcast. Please hop over and listen to this tiny experiment!

Walking in tandem with this sense of delight are feelings of complete joy and wonder because just outside my door the beloved apricot tree, who has been a cherished friend to me the last 3 years, is finally bearing an astonishing crop of fruit.

So many harvests!

One of the great joys of living in the high desert is the climate allows me to work outside beneath the tree’s branches. Yesterday, during a conference call my client could hear the gentle thuds of falling apricots throughout our conversation.

“That tree is talking to you Susan!” Jerry exclaimed.

“Oh, yes indeed she is!” I laughed.

I love how he was tuned in to the field of presence surrounding all of us. A presence which is loving, that listens and bears witness to the joys, the apathy, and yes the suffering. We all yearn to feel we belong in what often feels like a world that is as unbearably beautiful as it is sharp.

But on this Independence Day, I also feel a deep ache in my heart. As I gather the harvest of the tiny suns creating a carpet of sunshine in my yard, I am determined not to turn away from the fact that tanks will be rolling along the streets of a place I called home for so many years.

As much as my mind would like to turn away and push these thoughts and images through a trap door, I’m setting an intention to bear witness to both. I’m holding the heartache of the damage being done in Washington and the intoxicating aroma infusing my kitchen as I remove the stones from each piece of fruit to create sweet jams, compotes, and brandied infusions.

There’s an opportunity here that we could easily miss by glossing over what is. We have a chance to remove the stones wearing heavily from our minds. But stones can’t be taken away if they aren’t born witness to and recognized. We must see our wounds for what they are.

If I can faithfully hold the wondrous apricot in one hand while also holding the tank in the other, I can see both for what they truly are. And it’s only when we allow ourselves to let go of the mindstates that don’t serve us that true freedom is born.

May your States of Mind be united on this 4th of July,

Susan