It’s time for a sacred shift, and it starts with us

Last week I drove 1.5 hrs north to escape life and, as it turns out, find life again.

I was on my way to meet four inspiring women in my life, all dedicated moms and leaders in their work, for a full-day retreat in nature.  This annual retreat has become a non-negotiable for our mastermind of five, an extension of the transformative power we’ve discovered since coming together over a year ago to support one another’s growth.  Even with COVID and all its restrictions, we were determined to make this retreat happen so that we could temporarily trade in the intensity of city life with the nurturing and stillness of nature. 

After a deeply energizing yoga session, with eyes still closed, we spontaneously went around the circle and uttered our deepest fears and wants, holding nothing back.  Like a pack of hyenas at dusk, we laughed wildly and cried deeply. 

What a relief. 

This is what six months of pandemic pressure will do to five mothers seeking refuge from responsibility and restrictive living.  We were vulnerable, real, and desperate to release an inner aliveness crying out to be heard.  

This restless giant is crammed inside the centre of so many of us mothers right now - a knot in our stomach, longing to be set free so that its healing message might reach as far off as it is sung.

In that circle last week, I untangled the knot I’ve been carrying since the day COVID descended on our doorstep.

Beneath the knot lived the voice of the sacred, the ancient feminine call of wisdom.

And this untangling came with a message for me to pass on to other moms:

Do not underestimate the healing power of your sacred voice right now and how critical it is for you to begin using it.

In this chapter of global transformation, the scales of patriarchy will fall away to the extent that we allow the divine voice of the matriarch to guide us back to a world of whole, non-harm and compassion. Long before there were computers and the 24-hour news cycles, before working extra hours to pay for extra childcare so that we could meet impossible work deadlines as we hunched over desks under artificial lights...there were circles.  There were communities.  There was a village where women came together without haste for the sole purpose of oral storytelling and group healing. There was deep importance placed on a divine connection with our own inner nature and with the rituals to access the spiritual dimension in all aspects of life.

I have been experiencing the power of circle healing with like minded women over the last 15+years but have kept it secret.  Until recently, my spiritual transformation has been something I’ve felt shame about, where my academic/intellectual self worried that others in my world might write me off as flakey or lacking credibility.

Today, I believe that the risk of not-sharing this powerful awareness is more harmful than the risk of being judged or pigeon-holed as a heretic.

So, here I am.

Calling on you, moms, to listen to that knot in your stomach or that heaviness in your heart, or tightness in your brow.  Know that there is a role for you to play on the stage of this moment in our history.  

Will you choose fear or faith?

Courage or control?

Tension or trust?

Judgment or joy?

What will you choose to be for your kids and their generation?  

How will you choose to challenge the limited ways of thinking and being in your work?

And, most importantly, how will you choose to show up for yourself in those quiet fleeting moments of awareness?