Hello Courageous Souls,
How the pulse of the America has changed since the last time I wrote to you! Whether you are politically plugged in or not, I think it is safe to say, many of us are feeling a quickening and intensifying that is unsettling at best.
You may be asking yourself, “What should I do?”
If you are like me, this question comes hitched to psyche’s bandwagon and her chaotic entourage:
I often feel an unsettling feeling in my chest that I could or should be doing more. At times, I find myself doubting the impact I can have, or conversely, thinking there’s is no time for indulging such defeatism. And then, there are the little ones inside who just want to hide from what feels like a big, scary world.
To welcome these inner guests, while listening for a numinous inkling below the cacophony, is how I practice Soul Activism, a term I first heard from author and psychotherapist Francis Weller.
For me, Soul Activism presumes that we have each been shaped by life to meet the rough edges of the world where we are needed most. As I move through my own post-election shock, fear, and grief, I keep listening for how I belong to these times.
This week, I wrote to Maxwell House Coffee and invited them to participate in an act of reparations. The company’s origins date back to my great, great, great, great grandfather who sent his 16-year-old son, Joseph Maxwell from Gibraltar to Brazil, to engage in international commerce. This included flour, coffee, and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
My soul is sensitized to the wounds of slavery. I move from there, trusting that this is one of the ways I am meant to participate. It seems to me that we are each born with our own unique why. It grows in the darkness of what matters to us.
Why is the dark speech of the Soul.
What, when, where and how are the sacred work of the ego, whose home is well lit.
I trust that, as cells in the body of the earth, we each have a role. I trust that in the process of deep listening, the faces of what, when, where and how will emerge enrobed in deep feminine wisdom.
If you imagine yourself to be a cell in the body of the earth, where are you most needed and what is your function?
May this metaphor serve as a doorway.
May we each find the meeting place between our unique souls and the soul of the world.
May we feed the world with our broken and incandescent beauty.
May we be kind and generous with ourselves and each other.
May we embody the sacred in sacrifice, careful to not become the sacrifice itself.
May the deep intelligence of nature inform and sustain us.
Blessings, Aninha
P.S. The Clarity of Calling Self-Paced Course is still available. The teachings I offer are all applicable to Soul Activism.
