Here are the two best prayers I know:
“Help me, help me, help me,” and
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
— Anne LaMott

 
 
In the past five weeks, my father died and my son got married.

I had the blessing to sit by Papa’s side with my mom and sisters for 10 days as he made his transition at the age of 91. As he was laid to rest, I was awake to both my deep grief at losing him and profound gratitude that I felt complete with my dad, that I was able to tell and show both my parents how much I love them and how deeply I appreciate who they are. I knew my dad loved me beyond words. Each passing day I become more aware of how his love continues to be actively present in my life, how his spirit is still guiding and protecting the people he loves. I am more aware than ever of the spiritual power available in the liminal spaces, the spaces between.

Just a month later, my beautiful 26 year old son married his soulmate in a powerfully emotional ceremony on the banks of a lagoon in Del Mar, California. Cody shared a birthday with his grandfather and the two of them had a special connection. I hope his grandpa’s spirit was present to witness the true love clearly flowing between Cody and his new bride. There was both breathtaking vulnerability and immense joy woven into their potent and beautiful wedding celebration. And there was so much love.

It is the love that sustains and feeds me as I navigate this wild ride. I am asked again and again to open my heart just a little wider, to allow a little more pain and a little more love to reside there side by side. As I do this profound work, I am supported by a loving community of family and friends who have my back. I am especially reliant upon my sacred circle of women friends, who hold space with me for the big hits and who celebrate with me the greatest joys. Their capacity for authenticity and love are my sacred medicine.

I am aware that my intimate journey is a fractal of a larger pattern being played out on a planetary scale in this moment. We are being asked to hold so much pain and so much love side by side as we witness the dying and destruction of our natural world, as we acknowledge our love for Mother Earth, as we face the hard truths at the heart of the divisiveness in our world.

We are being asked to keep opening our hearts wider, to invite in more truth and more pain and more wonder and more joy and more love. We can do this. We can handle it. We have a vast capacity for authenticity and love — and the Earth needs this medicine we bring. Now.