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Forth Series – Issue 1
A Love Letter from Sage-ing International
Era of Awakening
The Purposeful Pause—A Portal to Wisdom
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The Executive Circle of Sage-ing International sends best wishes to our beloved community during this transitional time from summer to autumn. Here in Northern America, we are witnessing the natural rhythms of nature moving us through yet another transformation right before our eyes—leaves and foliage changing colors, animals preparing their young for the ensuing season, and warm days evolving into invigorating coolness. In this Era of Awakening, nature is a profound teacher as we continue to seek life-affirming ways to thrive in this new world.
Experts now predict that the COVID-19 pandemic will be endemic. For us who have the opportunity to still be alive at this time in history, we are more so realizing the serious responsibilities we have to be stewards for the welfare of family, community, society and Earth. Living in a time of pronounced conflict of opinions and perspectives, and a marked departure from substantiating evidence that supports our collective well-being, many are challenged by how to behold one another respectfully and lovingly. How do we determine best ways to continue upholding our personal truth in the presence of another person’s differing truth? Just as wisdom is inherent in nature’s means of moving through complex conditions, we can also navigate this time by practicing ways that lead us to a portal of inner wisdom in the midst of ambiguities.
An Ambiguous World. As a global community, we are at a pinnacle that requires all of the wisdom we can muster as we move forward day by day. Initially, COVID-19 mandates forced us to bring our lives to a standstill. Now, many months later, is it conceivable to accept that a practice of “pausing” is a gateway to sagacity?
Imaginably, opening to deeper understanding is analogous to gazing at a photograph. (Please take a moment to look at the images within this photo.)
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While the picture depicts natural beauty, calm and serenity, without attentive curiosity we may overlook a clue that the lake water level is unseasonably low. There are other elements that perhaps could unsettle the mind. One may see conflicting features and improbabilities—perhaps disparity relative to what we assume or know to be true. How can it be that the trees on the shoreline are up-side-down? Perhaps, you notice the image of clouds displaced from the sky. And, there is a grass clump seen larger and a post seen longer than “reality.” Lingering with the images, our perceptiveness brings us to a moment when we recognize that these are reflections that skew shapes, dimensions and positions. We may then realize the importance of stopping to ask, “To what extent does what I am seeing represent the absolute truth?”
This photo helps point out the trickiness of ambiguity and how easy it is to be misled in our conclusions about one another, and about life in general. It also teaches that intentionally pausing allows us to make room for deeper wisdom to reveal itself. More than in any prior time we have lived, this Era of Awakening calls us to intentionally take moments to align with our inner knowing in helping us wisely navigate our lives. When we momentarily halt and take a mental snapshot of reality, it is like creating the precious, quiet calm we briefly experience between an inbreath and outbreath that leads us successfully into our next moment.
The Purposeful Pause. The practice of a “purposeful pause” is simple in concept, but requires our undivided attention. The spaces between breaths hold the very essence that threads moments together in life-giving ways. We can liken breath to the practice of taking a purposeful pause. When we are unsettled, or when people astonish or perplex us, pausing gives us space to tap into our inner wisdom, refocus and transition effectively to our next moments. They help ground us. We soon experience that purposeful pauses help us sift through our network of random and logical, or illogical, thoughts and emotions. They help us clear the way. When we intentionally rest to empty “mental noise,” if you will, and clear disruptive emotions, the rest prompts us to consciously release fears, doubts and confusion that may otherwise deeply affect us and are apt to influence our perceptions and behavior—all contributing to the overall planetary vibration.
There is transformative power in this practice. As we continue to encounter challenges in the midst of enduring months of the COVID-19 virus and variants, intentionally pausing nurtures our capacity to mindfully counter-balance ambiguity, distrust or concern by our intuition and inner intelligence. During these attentive times, it is not too much to expect that deeper discernment will indeed emerge. Most often, clarity comes; at times the clarity is profound.
A Portal to Wisdom. A portal to inner wisdom opens for us to enter a space of deep listening and attune to what arises from within the pause. There is always an invitation that arises—to embrace the asset of silence as a path to wisdom and greater understanding. Many times, we look outside of ourselves for settling concerns of the heart and mind. We may seek advice from friends or family, ask the counsel of someone we consider a trusted advisor, or even travel to locations that we consider spiritual with hopes for answers. However, we do not need to look much further than within ourselves to practice witnessing life, tapping our inner advisor, and holding what we see with compassion and love. Wherever we are, regardless of time of day or time of our life, taking moments to pause and be present to inner guidance will likely take us to next steps of helpful and meaningful action.
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One pure moment
holds the power to create
infinite love.
Angie Weiland-Crosby
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The Power of Pausing. The power of pausing is admirably reflected in the story of Esther Hillesum. “Etty” was a young, brilliant Jewish intellectual and an aspiring novelist whose life ended early at age 29 by the Holocaust. She was determined to become a beacon of peace and kindness, despite obstacles that came her way. At her young age, she experienced an awakening that prompted her to pause. She wrote these words:
Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in
ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the
more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.
Etty Hillesum is one of the many voices from the past teaching us how to face the traumas of today. She embodied a valuable capacity for presence that wisdom teachers across the ages have extolled as the antidote to suffering and loss: “I know and share the many sorrows a human being can experience, but I do not cling to them; they pass through me, like life itself, as a broad eternal stream…and life continues…” We can exemplify Etty’s aspirations by increasing our own capacity for presence in this rugged world we live in—however ambiguous or wondrous.
Whatever our current situation, we can trust the magic within the fertile beauty of silence that fosters our relationship with wisdom emerging from our intuitive and spiritual nature. From this place, we can expect to gain finer capacity to respect and love one another. May we always remember Etty Hillesum’s one profound proclamation, “Love is the only solution.”
In the poem, More Love, More Love, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer speaks to transforming burdens through the choice of love:
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If sorrow is how we learn to love,
then let us learn.
Already enough sorrow’s been sown
for whole continents to erupt
into astonishing tenderness.
Let us learn. Let compassion grow rampant,
like sunflowers along the highway.
Let each act of kindness replant itself
into acres and acres of widespread devotion.
Let us choose love as if our lives depend on it.
The sorrow is great. Let us learn to love greater—
riotous love, expansive love,
love so rooted, so common
we almost forget
the world could look any other way.
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In closing, the Executive Circle invites you to join us at the upcoming 2021 online Summit: Evolving Elders—Shifting from “I” to “We,” October 29-31. Please review the outstanding Summit program and register at www.sage-ing.org. This will be a grand opportunity to pause in community, and explore possibilities for shifting our perspectives. We look forward to your presence at this highly important event where we will collectively uphold a light of transformation for the world.
Once again, we send you a gift. Please enjoy this inspiring song, Only Love produced by Fearless Soul. Click here. With this, may we continue our journey on the unclear path of these later months of 2021, leading forward as Sage-ing beacons of light, and exemplars of wisdom and love.
With love—The Executive Circle of Sage-ing International
Marilyn Loy Every, Co-Chair
Katia Petersen, Co-Chair
Nancy Gray-Hemstock, Secretary
Cindy Siemers, Treasurer
Randy Morris, Member-at-Large
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Notes:
Register for the 2021 online Summit:
Evolving Elders – Shifting from “I” to “We”
October 29, 30, 31
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