Hear The Whisper

As I sat in the residue of our first weekend of the Advanced Studies program on Sunday evening, I needed to create my theme for the upcoming week. I felt inspired from the weekend's workshop, but less than creative. So as I often do, I just allowed myself to sit and feel into what it is that's on my own personal horizon. I thought to myself, "Wow...so it's November already. That means this week is the mid-term elections, about two weeks away is the Thanksgiving holiday, followed by "Black Friday", "Cyber Monday" and the launch into the holiday season...the horizon is looking rather hectic!"

Thankfully, the election has passed and the bombardment of ads has become quiet. Even if you were on a news fast, it was nearly impossible to escape the campaigning with candidate's posters splattered along the roadsides, and the endless mailers arriving in the post box every day.

About a month ago, I was in a hardware store and the holiday decorations were in full display. Yep...two months away from the big Christmas holiday and they were tempting us to get things done early. I mean, really? How much stuff do we need and how much time do we need to celebrate the holiday season? Unfortunately, many people try to "survive" the holidays partly as it seems challenging to get away from that kind of bombardment as well.

Then cometh the festival of shopping...Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We're being lured to get the best deals before they're all gone and it's been made easier for us through using our desktop computers and mobile devices. It's like a spending feeding frenzy, electrifying our nervous systems as it presses into our resources of energy, time, and money.

The barrage is in full flight, with people and companies trying to grab our attention, our votes, our wallets. It seems as though this time of year is more ramped-up than usual, perhaps due to the election cycle but regardless, it's beyond easy to see why we get so distracted from the deeper meaning of life.

So my thought this week is a simple reminder to Hear The Whisper, of our inner selves. The voice that sits at the heart of who we are is always present and always has been. At times such as this, it's easy to see how the voice gets covered up with other, external stimuli. We are pulled outward and in the Northern Hemisphere, nature is asking us to pull inward as we turn toward the Winter Solstice. It's time to drop our proverbial leaves, put on our jammies, and hibernate.

At the beginning of the week, in that state between sleep and waking, I asked myself "Is there anything I need to know? Is there anything I need to remember?". And up bubbled my answer...first, "You are loved", followed by "You are love." And I thought, "Wow...thanks for the reminder!" It was as though my inner voice wanted me to know that sitting beneath all of the surface noise, beyond the distraction, that love is at the heart of everything. Pure and simple, but sometimes overridden by other things. 

This listening begins within me and hopefully, seeps out through my actions in the world. If I get quiet enough to hear my true self speak, it is more powerful than anything on the surface and is the potent reminder that the truth of my soul is not outside of me, but seeded deeply within.

So as the festive season descends upon all of us, honor that quiet whisper by giving yourself a few moments of radical presence to listen. You might be truly inspired by what you hear.