I started writing my blog over because I knew I needed to stop hiding, and that morphed into a new journey of being brave.
I had a whole world inside of me that only a couple of close friends even knew existed.
Writing this blog was the first step in my journey to start showing up for life and being brave became my theme for the following year and a half.
I have struggled with putting words to the theme that has followed brave, but I might be starting to figure it out.
I had begun to stand up for what I believed is right. I had never done that before and it was messy. I shy away from conflict and I used to shrink in the face of it. I would work overtime to wrap my head around the way things were evolving because I always let others decide how it was going to look.
There have been several times my knees were shaking, my breath was shallow, or my delivery was less than desirable but I managed to get my point across… and almost unbelievable to me, the things I was speaking up against would change.
This has been the new theme. Stand up for what you believe in and speak up even when your knees are shaking. I’ve been working on refining my new skills as they are quite rough around the edges.
I was listening to Debbie Millmans podcast. She was interviewing Priya Parker who wrote the book, The Art Of Gathering. Priya had studied power and talked about it for a brief couple of minutes.
When defining power, Priya spoke about Paul Tillich a theologian who paired power with love. Tillich defined power as “the drive of everything living to realize itself, with increasing intensity and extensity”. Priya called this self actualization.
She also quoted Martin Luther King who said, “power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic”.
I’m not even close to reckless and abusive, but I have spent my life being sentimental and anemic. Just the other day my dad pointed out my overuse of the word love. Apparently not everyone uses it in every sentence.
Carl Jung doubted that one person could inhabit both love and power and he said, “where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other.”
Sounds like a challenge to me.
After thinking about all of this for a couple of days I would say my theme has been learning to balance power and love. Right now that looks like standing in my own power and coming from love.
Setting boundaries, learning compassion, being brave, figuring out we can make change happen, learning about ego, standing up for what I believe in, speaking up, and embracing everyone’s humanity have been part of this journey.
Having a theme helps you to learn new skills and practice better ways of showing up in the world. If you had to name a theme to the lessons you are learning and the skills you are developing, what would it be?