The other day, I touched my heart and turned to my co-facilitator of a class I’m teaching (sort of) right now and said, “I’ve been teaching for 10 years and this is the first pandemic I’ve been through. I’m not sure what to do.”
I still don’t know.
I truly don’t.
And my heart aches in all of this.
What do you do when there are unknowns? What do you do when the information that is available is incomplete, incomprehensible, and likely incorrect?
Do you allow fear and anxiety to fill you? (Sure. Sometimes.)
Do you let it make a home in your heart? (Not this time.)
The Resilience of the Hopeful Heart
At the last Witchcamp I taught at, the last ritual’s intention talked about bending towards hope. This is the work of the heart. This is the work of resilience. This is the magick I want to bring into the world. Even if it’s in the house I’m not going to leave unless I have to.
It’s the work of washing hands and cleaning surfaces.
It’s the work of staying still.
It’s the work of listening to my body instead of my mind.
It’s the work of softening into the fear, putting an arm around it and letting it know I see it and witness its want to be seen.
It’s the work of breathing into and through.
It’s the spell of calling in resilience to widen and cradle the shaking and the discomfort.
Breathe – 10 breaths (or more), deep and long, holding between the inhalation and exhalation, letting the energy flow through
Touch the earth – Get outside and lean against a tree, smell a flower, touch the damp grass early in the morning, sit on the ground and feel the way gravity holds
Get quiet – turn off the internet, turn off your phone, let yourself be in the moment that is now, get present to stillness and know its arrival, ask it to stay
Connect – reach out to those who hold your heart well, those who love you and see you, talk/cry/laugh until you remember you are truly not alone
Devote – sit with your ancestors, sit with your godds, sit with the stretch of mycelium, know the cycles of water, sun, and moon, allow yourself awe and wonder, invite wisdom and know of something bigger, reach out to the stars
Daily practices, daily promises to show up for your weary, wondering heart.
These are the days of love magick that look like loving beyond reason. These are the days of remembering that your heart is beautiful and resourceful. It beats without your will and it allows flow and oxygen and life.
I believe this is a time for more love magick than ever. A time for loving yourself, showing up for yourself so completely that you know you have your back — and you can offer your heart to another.
Offer yourself to yourself. Promise yourself that you are true and committed.
This is a time of surrender, to be sure. It is a time of holding yourself in hope. For hope is what stretches and bends across the time that is.
It is the whisper that says, insists: ‘Keep going.’
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