In the northern hemisphere, we recently celebrated the summer solstice, the moment when the earth's axis tilts furthest toward the sun. Solstices and equinoxes have always captured my imagination as a way to mark the changing seasons and as a lens for contemplative practice. The summer solstice is often associated with fire, energy, passion, fertility, and creativity.
This year we hardly need a solstice to remind us that the world is on fire. A global pandemic and the recent, brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain, and countless others have served as catalysts for a reckoning with a core wound in American society. I find myself searching for a third space to hold the paradoxes of this moment: grief and gratitude, fear and confidence, despair, and hope.
At the same time, it is tempting in moments when passions are blazing to expect that we could never revert back to the status quo. However, for lasting changes to occur, we need strategies to stoke the fires of transformation and sustain our energy over time. Just as fire needs heat, fuel, and oxygen to sustain itself, our personal vitality is supported through intention, resources, and space.
Like the heat that activates combustion, our intentions awaken our energy and kindle our drive to act. Intentions are more like guiding principles than goals. They articulate a sense of orientation and awareness, rather than achievement. Intentions are also not dependent on the actions of others. For example, I can create an intention to live from a place of curiosity regardless of whether or not others show up this way.
Resources provide the energy to nourish intentions. Although we may initially think of material assets, resources can be physical, emotional, relational, experiential, and imaginational. Essentially, resources are anything that helps you connect to the goodness of life. To support my intention to live with curiosity, I might identify the qualities I associate with it, such as wonder, delight, interest, admiration, creativity, and imagination. I could choose a work of art or a poem that evokes these attributes or remember a time in my life when I felt curiosity.
A sense of spaciousness, openness, and availability are the enabling conditions that invite our intentions to emerge. This involves giving ourselves opportunities to practice slowing down, pausing to notice our breath, and the connection between our bodies and the ground.
What intentions are arising for you in this day, month, season? What resources do you have to support your intentions? Where do you have opportunities to slow down, to create a space for your intentions to arise?