Our September theme is Embracing Possibility. What is possible for us in these uncharted times? What’s possible for our families, for our congregations? Where do we begin to look? Buddhists say: Start where you are, where we are.

Where are we? What are we noticing, feeling? In those around me, I’m noticing deepening reluctance to put oneself ‘out there,’ and at the same time throwing caution to the wind. I’m seeing people worn down. Bone tired. Depleted if not depressed. Snapping, irritable, blaming. Withdrawing even further.

Where do we find possibility amidst depletion, anxiety? Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron’s response is to start with a broken heart.

Since the early months of pandemic, I’ve been walking in the darkness in my home, round and round, feeling grief, anxiety, reactivity. At first I was afraid it would drown me. I thought it was mine, asking: What had I failed to notice, to feel, during the daylight hours? It wasn’t (just) mine. It asked me just to feel it: All the feelings we don’t know how to hold in this collective sea of pandemic. It wasn’t mine to fix. It isn’t yours to fix. It is ours to feel, so we may open to one another, with the enormous power of the heart broken open:

–Not fighting the sadness. Not identifying with the sadness
–Not fighting the not-knowing, the confusion
–Not identifying with or controlled by the urge to blame, to lash out:
Allowing our beautiful hearts to open in wide and deep compassion.

Possibility comes from open-heartedness, which we feel as compassion: The willingness and courage to feel it all with one another (from the Latin, com=with and passio=to feel).

From the fertile soil of compassion – for ourself and others – we start to cultivate resilience. When I don’t expect myself to fix it or have the answer, when I stop denying the feelings, my heart opens in spacious compassion. What needed to be felt has been felt. What needed to be seen has been seen. Life’s spacious possibilities may arise.

Our NY son, daughter-in-law and grandsons came for their first visit since pandemic (Dec 2019). He’d been working from home, she and the boys had done Zoom school. They seemed in shock. By the end of their visit, shock revealed exhaustion. No drama covering it over. Depletion. Opening into the spaciousness of being seen. Hearts broken-open. Open to new possibility.

It is hard not to run away from big feelings. What do we have to do, to feel it all, so that our hearts break open in compassion?

This is the on-going, deepening practice of cultivating resilience: Trusting the beautiful heart. Trusting the interdependent web of life holding us all. Trusting our deepest wisest self/selves. Trusting one another. Becoming trustworthy.

How are you embracing possibility in response to pandemic surge?

How are you allowing your heart to break open to compassion and new possibility?

PS: In Thursday Morning Meditation, starting Sep 9 (10:30-11:30, we draw on Pema Chodron’s teachings. (You are always welcome to Zoom in.)