Getting to Yes
Begins with this....
Hello, sweet pea 💗
You have so much more inside of you.
So much more to explore, express and become.
You can feel it, can’t you? It’s why you’re here.
Yes.
So let’s begin.
I know it’s scary. Of course, it’s scary. This is new… but it’s your time.
Time for Yes.
Time to escape
Escape to your future
Escape comes from the old verb “es” meaning to “exit” or throw off and the old word “cappa” indicating a heavy cape, weighty cloak or confinement. Escape means breaking free of the old, exiting a shroud that is holding you back so you can emerge new, free, alive to what’s calling to you now.
Think about escape like molting.
Or, perhaps, more poetically, think about your escape in terms of caterpillars and butterflies.
Escape is how hardworking caterpillars transform “keep-chewing” into “free spirits” as lively butterflies.
See?
Yes, you can.
How to begin
The first step is feeling the feels.
It’s allowing yourself to become aware of that quiet, sinking sensation that things just don’t add up the way they used to. That somehow, something deep down feels off kilter and it doesn’t yield to your powerful efficiency in getting from point A to point B. That maybe, possibly you’ve entered a murky, confusing, frustrating, surprisingly malaise-ish time in your life that feels more like a fog bank than your usual zone of accomplishment: it doesn’t shift, can’t be pushed, cajoled or reasoned with.
Ugh.
Yeah, ugh.
The Ugh Club
That ugh puts you in excellent company. Like kinship with David Whyte and Dante. Do you know
David Whyte’s melodic writings and poetry? His lulling Anglo-Irish voice welcomes you to a lost phase of your life. He’s definitely worth a dreamy detour.
In his classic Clear Mind, Wild Heart, Whyte explores Dante’s Inferno as a metaphor for mid-life…..
“In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in a dark wood, where the true way was wholly lost
— Dante
Getting to Yes begins by realizing that quite possibly you may actually be in the “middle of the road” of your life, in a “dark wood” and even perhaps “wholly lost.”
You’ve arrived
Congratulations. That “dark wood” is exactly where you need to be.
This is the time and place of your new beginning. This is your starting point.
This is your gift in the shit-storm.
How you respond is up to you.
My advice — besides Calm the fuck down — is go all in, literally.
Choose like your life depends on it
Go all in
Go all in. Into the caterpillar chrysalis, into the “dark wood,” into the “dark night of the soul.” Enter the crucible, or whatever you want to call it, and commit.
This is your reckoning.
Murky, confusing, foggy — and still commit.
Even though it’s hard to discern, say Yes. Even when it’s scary, say Yes. Unknown, say Yes. No guarantees and still say Yes.
Like the Sufi stream and all those who’ve passed this way, just get to Yes.
Yes, sweet pea 💗
Anne
Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out
someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.
You are not leaving
you are arriving.
Anne Alexander.….who?
A mentor once described me as a “woman of depth” and I think that’s accurate. I weathered some “dark woods” and shift-storms and I love saying Yes to diving in deep, sharing treasure.
Author of two New York Times bestsellers, Editor of Prevention (twice), Editorial Director of National Geographic, Content Director for Mindful
Single-mother of three beloveds 💗💗💗 who are now adulting-ish
Interfaith minister - open, curious, with respect for all
Traveler - always and everywhere