Happy New Year, and welcome to my new blog and website! As much as I hope to kiss 2020 goodbye for good, I will hold fast to the important lessons from the the last year year as they guide my path in powerful ways in 2021.
The concept and practice of “both/and” as a way to hold the tension of two or more sometimes contrasting truths, like the good and bad, or the pretty and the ugly is not an easy practice, and requires skillful compassion in action. The urgent need for this practice echoes in one of my most important observations in 2020: the unveiling of the the shadow side of American society – our striving for more equitable racial and social justice beliefs and policies while we still stand rooted in an inherently stratified organizing systems that separate and disconnect. Can we hold the tension of these both/and transform our national identity? Standing in the reality of my culture’s contradictory nature, facing the conflicted and oppositional discomfort that it ensnares us within is the first step toward healing and the possibility of ushering in a fuller, more compassionate practice of togetherness and nationhood into the light. In this way, the newness of the year for me is about seeing the truth of who I am and we are more clearly, remembering who we are capable of becoming, and recommitting to infusing love and compassionate action in all that I do.
As my personal values and intentions get clarified, naturally, clarification of my intentions as a yoga and mindfulness teacher, health educator and a performing artist followed suit. And this new website is a visual representation of that crystallization. I hope you will join me in the heartful work of both celebrating the triumphs and tales of resilience of 2020 AND remembering the suffering, the loss and grief as guideposts for how to skillfully navigate the continuing contradictions that will surely cross our path in 2021.