I told David that this is a life-defining moment.  Cancer doesn't have a "face" you can look in the eye.  Its not something you can reason with, so it is up to you and you only to face the unknown.  I told David I picture him like the Hero because Heroes are the bravest among us.  I see a Hero as someone who: calls on their internal resources and energy for focus, clarity and willpower; believes they are fighting for something worth fighting for!; and believes they are not alone in their fight, but are so focused on their cause that this wouldn't matter anyway.  David has certainly begun to get in touch with the powers of a Hero.  When he completes his journey, I hope David gains wisdom, confidence, and faith in himself and the divine nature of things.  I hope he takes the opportunity to make positive healthy changes in his life regardless of the uncertain cause of his cancer.  Like the Hero who endures his battles, suffers loss, and admits small defeats before the final conclusion, David will earn the right to experience the true nature of glory and victory.  I know he will be blessed with access to a special kind of joy in understanding the gift and reward of something won, something achieved, learned, and maybe even something sacred.

My brother David is my Hero!

Seriously.  Think about this!  This is one of the most opportunity-rich and powerful insights.  It should be demanding every individual's attention, not least of which the leaders of the new millennium.  First, think about how you "identify" yourself.  Then, think about how you "identify" the other 6 billion + people we share the planet with.

I'll demonstrate.  At some level, my personal sense of identity goes something like:  I am an American citizen, of Minnesotan origin and California residence, with Irish and German ancestry, a woman, married, a professional life coach, a yoga practitioner, a dancer, a music fan.  I am deeply committed to the learning, health, the study of vocation, and travel.  I am profoundly concerned about the environment, the value of life, and the positive transformation of our world into a place where potential is maximized not minimized. 

• How do you identify yourself?
• How expansive is your view of personal identity?

Now, how do I identify the other 6 billion people?  This is where it gets interesting, because in this world context I see the Brit, the Afghan, the South American, the Chinese, the Moroccan, the Haitian, the Turk, the Malaysian.  I also see the Muslim, the Buddhist, the Christian, the Jew, the Hindu.  I see the Western world, I see Eastern. 

• How do you identify others in the world? 
• What do you notice about the way you group the people of the world?

The first thing I notice is how unintentionally limiting I find my answers.  Sen offers up a simple "awakening" by helping us recognize that there is a way in which these cultural and religious identities are all profound mis-descriptions.  None of these ought to be taken as any human being's only identity or singular membership category!!  According to Sen, the point is that the "freedom to determine our loyalties and priorities between different groups to all of which we may belong is a peculiarly important liberty which we have reason to recognize, value and defend."  I love it!

Imagine the danger in the limited perspective which denies our "inescapably plural identities" as human beings!  Sen calls for a paradigm shift in our conceptual thinking about identity. 

• What kind of boxes do you put other individuals in? 
• How might you change the ways in which you unwittingly identify people?

As a coach, I wonder how each of us can exercise a change in our perspectives to see the "wholeness" that exists in both ourselves and others?  I return again and again to the co-active principle of seeing each client as "naturally creative, resourceful and whole." 

• How can we incorporate this perspective into the way we interact with others each day?
• How might you identify yourself as being naturally creative, resourceful and whole?

Because Amartya Sen has so exquisitely captured it, I can't help but toss in a last excerpt from Identity and Violence:  "Our shared humanity gets savagely challenged when the manifold divisions in the world are unified into one allegedly dominant system of classification--in terms of religion, or community, or culture, or nation... The uniquely partitioned world is much more divisive than the universe of plural and diverse categories that shape the world in which we live... The hope of harmony in the contemporary world lies to a great extent in a clearer understanding of the pluralities of human identity, and in the appreciation that they cut across each other and work against a sharp separation along one single hardened line of impenetrable division."

I am overcome with "Amen".

Light Blessing

Blessed be Light.
Energy of all color,
   colorless.
Being of all forms,
   formless.
Sound of all noise,
   vibration.
Self folding into Self,
   sustaining.
Source of illumination,
   bright.
Taste of clear,
   brilliance.

Radiant awareness,
   complete unconscious.
Connection point to wave,
   motion blending still.

Blessed be Light.
Divine obliteration!
Open into All,
  Beginning with no end.

Willpower
Too often I let myself "off the hook" with clever excuses. A tricky little voice inside says something like "You planned to go to yoga class every other day this week, but what's the harm in skipping today's practice? It's only missing one class and afterall, sleeping in is good for your body too." In coaching we refer to this little voice as the "gremlin", "inner critic," or "shadow self" and it certainly makes many appearances during a fast! But the fast is allowing me to meet this little shadow head on because, as I persist in my focus, I can actually feel the pleasure and sensation of my body's health fortified through cleansing. It is the old psychology around successfully doing the thing that feels hardest for you that also enables the "I can do anything" attitude! For me, the juice fast feels wonderfully affirming, validating, motivating and confidence-building in this way. I feel totally surprised by this, too, as before ever having fasted, I would have imagined myself to never have the willpower to follow through on such a thing. So I am now seeing my fast like a building block that empowers change through sharper focus and healthy self-discipline.

Internal Focus
The fast is a totally internal experience, highlighting for me how miraculous my body is; how miraculous the human body is! I've always understood this in principle, but the fast gives me another access point to connect with my body on the level of Temple: something sacred, something mysterious, and powerful. I feel fine-tuned with the raw energy of physical transformation, and the mind-body connection. And for me, it is usually during times of full mind-body connection that the additional element of spirit becomes very strong and enabled.

Giving and Receiving
Today I am seeing how Birthdays are a good opportunity to nourish the balance between giving and recieving. And it is such a balanced cycle. The harder I work in earnest to contribute to both the act of giving and that of recieving, the richer and more complete I feel. Its easy to find myself getting stuck in one place or the other. Usually I direct my conscious energy and awareness toward having gratitude for the things outside of myself, like a loving husband, a wonderful home, an adorable dog, a new computer, an amazingly special group of friends, or the city of San Francisco.

Blessed
My intuition and inner wisdom guide me to feel a sense of primoridial celebration and to inhabit the blessing of my very existence - my breath, my beating heart, my brain, my blinking eyes and typing hands, my sense of humor, my creativity, my way of seeing things, my energy, my nightime dreams, my health, my connection to this time and place in the world, my memories, my vision of the future. What better way can I honor the gift of my own birth than to reflect on these things? Today, I have a new sense of the magic that is available to me by engaging in this annual ritual.

Yesterday I went to Santa Cruz for an Astrology reading with Vicki Noble.  More and more I've come to believe that astrology has more to offer me than just mere curiousity.  The moment I remember being most convinced by that was when I realized how strong the pull of the Moon is on my monthly menstrual cycle.  An impact so physical is hard to deny.  I reckoned that if the Moon has this power, why wouldn't all the other celestial bodies have elemental powers over life cycles as well.  I definitely can't say that I can give a very grounded explanation for why I feel Astrology is so enlightening, but its a belief that is growing over time.  I do know that for the value to be there you must receive a reading and the interpretation with a very open mind and heart.  By that I mean you might hear, for example, that you have a life-lesson to learn in your lifetime that you would rather deny.  I did my best to keep my natural "filters" out of what my astrology reading was telling me.  It seemed to me that if I remained open to the reading, while simultaneously holding an honest sense of who I am and always have been in the world, that I found a LOT of resonance in my charts. 

Life Map
My reading ended up giving me a greater context for some of my historical struggles, and how these paradoxically have to do with my future destiny.  I liked having something "neutral" besides my husband, a friend or a parent to validate my exprience - both in the past and as a vision for the future.  I learned how some of the struggles and blindspots in my life have their place in the bigger picture of my astrological consititution.  I also learned that so many of my natural impulses and leanings are part of this bigger picture, and that in this astrological model, it is important that I follow them because they are part of my celestial life map.  Perhaps most imporatnatly this helped me to see how i can let go of fears that I should live up to, or behave, or be anything other than myself. 

Heavenly Sky
The sky is so vast - by day and by night.  Heaven.  It's such a big part of our symbolic mental view.  Every time you walk out the door the sky envelops you like a great big endless pillow. Its very sweet to entertain the thought and the imagination with the notion that all those twinkling lights up there in the sky represent the many different life energies we experience here on Earth, and that if we let them, they can help guide us on our path.

Seasonal Markers
The change of season serves as a wonderfully reliable quarterly structure within which we can reflect on our own lives. We have the opportunity to grow wiser in what we learn about ourselves through careful musing. This takes some work, just like collecting ripe fruit from a tree. Start mapping your own life against the wisdom of the seasons. For instance, what do you notice about yourself, your inner world, as the outside world around you begins to shift? What do you smell in the air when you head outside? What's happening to your sleep patterns and energy levels? What sorts of food does your body crave? What types of excercise is your body asking for? I encourage you to take notice of these subtleties in general, and specifically to see what patterns have a tendency to correspond to the change in season.

Fall
Given this is the Fall, take a look at are you harvesting this season. Need some clues as to where to start with all of this! Why not start with your mind and emotions: What do you spend your down-time thinking about these days? What are your thoughts and feelings focused around? Where have you been putting your spare energy? After you've gotten an overview here, begin to ask: What seeds were planted early this year that are now ready for harvest? What changes were initiated in this year of my life that are coming to fruition? Notice what it is about how you know when something in your life is ready to harvest.  What in your life needs more tending before it will ripen? Don't forget to observe these questions in all areas of your life, not just your career. For example, how about the relationships in your life, your eating and exercise habits, the rooms in your home or apartment, or your spiritual practice.

Yoga
If you practice yoga, it happens to be  one of the best ways to gain an understanding of this concept!  In each pose, you physically embody both a transformational movement, and simultaneous contentment for what is.  As you stretch in a pose, you can literally feel the transformation at the cellular level.  Depending on the pose, for example, you may feel a release of tension, an opening, or strengthening of the muscles.  Your energy may be transformed into stimultion, or calm.  At the same time as all this, you also experience contentment for what is through awareness of your own physical limitations.  In each pose, your movement can only be as deep as your body allows.  Otherwise you'd push yourself  into injury. 

Contentment
So it is in life!  Its important to have a sense of gratitude for who you are here and now; to reflect on where you are today, and appreciate exactly what the experience of this day holds.  And if you happen to be in a painful place, then just cultivating a sense of contentment might reveal an opportunity for relief from your hurt, or clarity to your confusion.  Too often when we are dissatisfied or unhappy, we conclude that "transformation" is necessary.  If you are in this state, I challenge you to explore what cultivating a sense of "contentment for things just as they are" has to offer.  Sometimes life's trials and hardships hold a nugget of learning.  Don't run away from that.  What can you learn from a practice of contentment whether your life feels amazing or lacking?  

Transformation
Transformation tends to be encouraged in the world we live in, so many of us spend time seeking it.  In any case, cultivating your longing for transformation is as essential as that of contentment.  Without passion, desire, and motivation for change, we cannot grow.  When we're not growing we become discontent, possibly anxious.  Like a plant, if not nourished with growth, it either lies dormant, or dies.  Transformation is key to unleashing your potential, and as you step further and further down the path of your potential, happiness grows and you feel like sunshine.  What aspect of your life needs transformation?  Think back on your life to times of change.  What did you discover about yourself  through these moments?   

Homeostasis
Life is like a wave that ebbs and flows between periods of transformation and times of contentment.  Like day and night, sometimes you're in motion and other times you are at rest.  Both are ingredients to the balance recipie.  Your body is innately gifted with an extraordinary way of seeking balance.  Its an organic principle called homeostasis and it happens throughout nature.  Course-correcting when you recognize that you are out of balance can be simple if you consider where more "contentment" is called for, and where a real focus on transformation is needed in your life.  Where have you become too comfortable, or too conent in your life?  Alternatively, where have you been too fixed on driving transformation?  Perhaps a dose of peace and contentment could in fact be the transformation you seek.  Check in with yourself on this balance scale.   Both the place of contentment and that of transformation hold great power.

Purna
In yoga, this balance is called Purna.  Purna means "I am whole.  I am complete.  I am perfect."  Turns out... YOU are purna, and you are purna at all times!  Consider a daily 3 second mantra in which you remind yourself of this very important truth!