Beauty, Wisdom and the Nitpick

Opportunities for loving & growing this
Yin Fire Rooster year

I believe many of us have felt like we stepped into a blender these last weeks (Like that old riddle: What is black and white and red all over?) With a whirlwind of Executive Orders, American citizens, and beyond, were thrown into the nearly all-consuming thoughts and feelings that tumultuous change brings—for some this was thrilling: ACTION was finally happening in our old and stale government; for others ANXIETY was the greater sense: so many placed at risk, and what's happened to the checks and balances of the system we used to know? 

All of this chaos sent us judging and provided the perfect opportunity for lashing out, name calling, blaming in all directions—as if we were thrown back to the insecure, back-stabbing land of middle school. And this chaos has created community bonds strongly sewn with loyalty, care and commitment—a much needed upside.

People coming together for heart-felt purpose, more than I have before witnessed or felt in my lifetime: THAT IS WHAT THIS YEAR IS ALL ABOUT. And that is the beauty and wisdom in what threatens to rip us apart.  

It's tough. It's risky. It's enlivening. It's waking us all up. It's demanding that we do the "Inconvenient Work", as the Interfaith Amigos often refer.

 

2012 interview with the wise and endearing Interfaith Amigos... early days of Living Sensual!  Click to view on YouTube.

This chaos is pushing us each to ask and answer the big questions: 
Who Am I?
What do I believe in?  
What am I a STAND FOR?  
What is mine to do?  
What is my purpose here... this year, this month, this moment?

Radical Discernment: Another gift of the Yin Fire Rooster year.

The natural character of rooster personifies two distinct sides.
In-Balance: Connected to Beauty, Wisdom, Healthy Pride and Ownership in Effort and Accomplishment
Out-of-Balance: Obsessed with nitpicking, criticism, egoic pride, cock-fighting, and needing to be the center of attention.

Add the element of glowing embers (yin fire) and you have a clear choice to make between running your life from your wise, intuitive, collaborative, connected heart OR your fearful, competitive, not-enough, fight or flight head.

I am truly amazed at how the symbolism and the energy of this year has shown up in perfect timing with all that is happening in our country, and in our collective humanity.

We have been given this gift (that feels like a shit storm), and we get to make love out of it. 

We get to learn the much needed yet arduous task of cracking open our fearful egos in favor of heart-felt HUMILITY—learning to really respect and honor that WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS, LIVING ON THIS AMAZING PLANET EARTH, WITH THE SAME BASIC NEEDS: love, purpose, and community; food, shelter, and clothing; and to grow through the experience of our varied undesirable fates—celebrating in the more desirable moments. 

THE GIST: This year of the Yin Fire Rooster is helping us to build bridges as we knock down old walls of fear and judgment (walls in our minds that were created to keep us safe and secure from what we didn't know or understand—walls that live in all of us, in one mistaken perspective or another). We will build those bridges by living from our kind and caring hearts...bridges to our collective better living. 

Will you do the "inconvenient (inner) work" to make this better life possible?

Happy Valentine's Day!

To Living Sensual!  

XO Piper