What I needed to hear today for comfort

Hi, beautiful friend.

Before you go any further, will you take a deep breath with me? In through your nose and sigh it out through your mouth. Try that three times if it feels good for you.

There are teachings that say one conscious breath can bring us back into this moment, which is all that really exists.

I heard a teacher named Emily Fletcher say, “Stress hangs out in the future and the past, but bliss lives right here.”

I’m trying to remind myself of that when anxiety visits really loudly. When I begin to think about all that is wrong with the world—people, elections, and so on—I also love the ancient proverb, “Pray and move your feet.” I can pray for light to cover our world, our country, our city, my home, my life, and more, which is holy and sacred, but then I get to move my feet.

What can I do to help that prayer along?

I know you may be feeling a lot of anxiety about the state of our world. It’s so easy to focus on all that is really messed up and broken (I’ve done a ton of that). I often hear myself say, “This place is insane!” when I speak of the Earth and all the ways we cause harm to each other, animals, and the planet. Honestly, I think about it a lot, which has also made it hard to want to be here. I have felt homesick on this planet for as long as I can remember, as strange as that sounds. However, in the past five or six years, I’ve begun to see it all differently. I believe we are all incarnated here for a reason. We came to Earth School to learn and experience many things and to remember that we are love and extensions of divinity—completely connected to everything—and that God is a kind and friendly God (not the damning, judgmental white God in the sky).

What does it look like to move my feet to help focus and create more beauty in this world instead of devastation?

First off, I believe this is an inside job. I cannot change any person on this Earth but myself. So instead of focusing on what is wrong with others and the state of our world, what does it look like to focus on what I can do? Helping our neighbors, voting, bringing flowers to people who are hurting or just to brighten their day, writing handwritten thank-you letters, feeding animals, and looking for miracles and goodness that are always around me alongside the pain and darkness.

What little action can you take today to make the world around you a little more beautiful?

I know it can feel like these are really scary times. I feel that so deeply. I want to share a few things that have helped shift those feelings inside of me over the past few days. It’s hard for me to put into words how deeply Liz Gilbert's words have touched my mind, body, and soul in this life. I feel so grateful to be alive at the same time as her and to learn from her. Her words also make me feel less alone as they resonate on the deepest cellular level. I often find myself saying, “Me too,” when I read her words or hear her speak. If you do not follow her “Letters to Love” Substack, I cannot recommend it enough. The one that showed up in my inbox this weekend made me cry. I even read it to a few friends over dinner on Sunday night because it touched me so deeply.

If you are feeling deep anxiety about our world or over this election, please read this; it feels like a salve to my aching heart: Elizabeth Gilbert's Letter.

Also, I happened to listen to a podcast she did on Friday that honestly shifted something in me: Elizabeth Gilbert: How to Stop Manifesting Toxic Love & Heal Your Relationships.

I rewound several parts to hear them again. Her self-awareness, her brutal, loving honesty about herself and her mistakes, and the grace and love she speaks over all of it are absolutely holy. I hope it comforts and touches you as it has me.

Sweet friend, you are not alone. You are held, loved, needed, and welcomed here. You are needed here.

How can you bring more beauty and love into your life and those around you today? How can you move away from the mass consciousness of fear and lack and experience and share more love, abundance, and generosity today? That is what I am focusing on today. That is what I know I can contribute.

As Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Let's look for miracles and beauty everywhere, because what we focus on grows!

I love you, I love us,
Ruthie

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