“To cherish others is to cherish ourselves. To cherish ourselves is to cherish others. And in that same way, we relate to the truth. If we support it, if we embrace it, if we uphold it, we will be embraced by it, we will be supported and upheld by it.” –Sharon Salzberg

Dear Friends,
It’s Watchword time again in our SoulCollage® Circle (est. 2005). At the beginning of the new calendar year, each circle member chooses a Watchword to guide them during the following twelve months. Each of us approaches the Watchword differently. I have written about this here and here.

My previous Watchwords include…
2016: Trust and Accept
2017: Enough
2018: Allow
2019: Simplifying

Trust the process!

After four years of dancing with this evocative practice, I have found my rhythm. Around Winter Solstice time, I ask for guidance about the Watchword I need most in the coming year.

In the mind’s stormy seas, my Watchword has become the shining beacon illuminating the horizon I’m sailing toward. I have come to utilize the Watchword practice to…

• help me mature spiritually.
• be the medicine that heals old hurts.
• challenge my constrictive thinking.
• bring more wholeness and balance to my soul.

Every year I hear the SoulCollage® mantra, “trust the process,” as I ask my rational mind to go along with what it may view as an irrational experience. (While the rational mind is useful in many ways, I’ve learned it can only take me so far and it often limits my awareness.)

“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” –Napoleon Hill

In quiet moments of day-dreaming and night-dreaming, images of the Watchword come forth. This time, words came shaped like a child’s puffy bubble letters, floating as clouds across the horizon of my awareness. And in a quiet moment, Intuition says, “YES! This is the Watchword your soul needs for the New Year, Marti.”

“Learning to cherish others is the best solution to our daily problems, and it is the source of all our future happiness and good fortune.” —Kelsang Gyats

At first, Intuition sent CHERISH to be the Watchword I need in 2020. I was delighted with the vibration of CHERISH. It felt positive and congruent with my usually optimistic nature. Yes! it would be easy to get on board with cherishing all the beloved people, beings, places, and things in my life!

BUT, NO! Intuition had to add two more words. They floated up, attaching themselves to CHERISH. I tried and failed to bat the two words away, sending a windstorm to banish them.

Undaunted, Intuition insisted that “CHERISH What Is” is precisely the Watchword I need for my mental health and spiritual growth in 2020. Bah humbug, I reply.

(You can see my CHERISH What Is SoulCollage® card and its message at the end of this essay. Also, I list several resources about the Creative Process plus simple ways to get involved in and informed about the democratic process.)

A Story of Watchword Synchronicity

” And so, with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.” — Buddha

February 12, 2020, Downers Grove, Illinois

On a cold, sleety-snowy night, Harry and I are at our favorite fine dining place, celebrating Valentine’s Day early and welcoming today’s arrival of Oakley Liam, our second great-grandson! The dimly lit room, made cozy by a roaring fire, enhances our delicious meal and romantic exchange of Valentine gifts and toasts. We talk about the miracle of living long enough to greet Oakley, the swift flow of time as the next generations take their place in the world. I thank Harry for being my HelpDeskHunk for Designs for Peace and then reflect on how writing my Watchword essay on CHERISH What Is has clarified its valuable intention.

Someone behind me raises his glass and Harry smiles and responds in kind. I turn to see a man sitting alone with his meal before him. He again raises his glass and smiles at us.

As we leave for home, we stop to thank him. He introduces himself as Jose and says, “Really, I thank you two for what you gave me. Tonight I came to this special place to celebrate my 38th wedding anniversary. My wife passed away three weeks ago. Watching you two filled me with happy memories of her.”

His eyes (and ours) fill with tears. Jose continues, “My wife and I would go out to nice places like this and watch silent couples ignore each other. You two are obviously in love and glad to be together. You remind me of us and our love.”

Jose reaches out to hold our hands, tears glittering in the firelight and says, “All I can say is CHERISH each other, no matter what! CHERISH every single day until the time comes when the other has gone ahead. Then, you’ll be happy you’d cherished each other. You’ll sit and feel lonesome like I do now. And your heart will be happy for what was and still is and will always be.”

Harry and I squeeze Jose’s hands and thank him for blessing us with his message to CHERISH What Is. Through slippery streets, we journey home in silence, holding hands, stunned by the beautiful synchronicity of hearing Jose’s story.

What happens when I resist What Is

Many painful moments have taught me the truth that “what we resist, persists.” We humans each have our unique set of blinders intent on guarding our ego’s story about The Way Life Is. These blinders…

• limit our ability to clearly see the broadest horizon of awareness.
• prevent us from challenging our habitual constrictive thoughts.
• reinforce the brain’s instinct to collect evidence to support its (often unfounded) beliefs.

I know what it feels like to hang tight to those blinders and mightily resist seeing clearly. I know how attached the mind gets to the illusion that my ego = my identity. That useless notion has led me down many a scary rabbit hole!

I know how icky it feels when the blinders slip off. The choice then becomes to quickly build up another fear-based illusion about the nature of reality OR to look in the mirror and to witness the awful Moment of Truth…

…that regardless of how hard I’ve searched outside myself for the source of my pain and problems, I clearly see that the common denominator in all my problematic relationships is me! As the sages say, “Wherever you go, there you are.”

“What Is” & the Creative Process

I confess I came into 2020 kicking and screaming, persistently resisting What Is, raging and blaming our country’s leadership and followers for the toxic, divisive atmosphere we’re enduring. I even secretly blamed them for the weakened state of my body, mind, and spirit.

Intuition witnessed my immature habit of blaming external circumstances and chose to interrupt it by giving me the Watchword CHERISH What Is. And challenging me to trust the process!

Intuition insists I remember I am always more peaceful, effective, and happy when I remove the blinders and stop resisting What Is. Only then am I able to create the life I DO want.

For the Creative Process starts with acknowledging “What Is”. Next is setting up a structural tension between Current Reality (What Is) and my Vision of the New Now I wish to create.

The Creative Process DOES NOT involve Problem-solving, Reacting and Responding, Rebelling and Ranting, Refusing and Resisting What Is!

Intuition reminds me of the paradox that it is only when facing into “What Is” (Current Reality) that am I free to CREATE the New Now (my Vision). Could this be where my Watchword “Cherishing What Is” will lead me?!?

I remember the many times when the Life Force was vivified because I held this structural tension. I am grateful for Bae Emilson and Robert Fritz who taught me these creative principles. As a result, I was able to

• find my soul-mate and co-create a beautiful marriage with him.
• create and sustain three successful business ventures that allowed me to serve others and express my SoulEssence,
• form, guide, and sustain several democratic communities.

Most importantly, I learned how to be the predominant creative force in my own life.

Intuition beckons me to sit quietly, listen to inner wisdom, then get off the meditation pillow, and act with the skillful means of the Creative Process.

As I learn to CHERISH What Is, I’m curious how this Watchword practice might help me…

• navigate the stormy seas already appearing on the horizon of 2020.
• soften the mind’s paralyzing emotionality.
• live into useful new thoughts and behaviors.
• channel my frustration into becoming a more involved citizen, one who is committed to a democratic way of life for all.

“Our democracy is dependent on people who passionately cherish the ideals of a democracy. Every man is created equal with an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s a wonderful idea, and it takes people who cherish that idea to be actively involved in the process.” —George Takei

In my quest to do my part in creating a better world, one resource I am exploring is the grassroots progressive group, Indivisible, co-founded by Ezra Levin and Leah Greenburg in 2016. And if you’re curious or distressed about our current polarization and what to do about it, check out the recent OnBeing podcast, when Krista Tippett interviews Ezra Klein. Finally, McKay Coppins of The Atlantic has written a disturbing article about the current reality of the 2020 Disinformation War. (See links at end of this essay.)

In hopes of inspiring your Watchword practice, in my next essay I’ll share this year’s experiment in making a set of 12 “CHERISH What Is” SoulCollage® cards.

As always, I welcome your comments and your sharing about your 2020 Watchword and other sanity-sustaining ways you are navigating the stormy seas of 2020.

May you walk in Beauty today and all the days of your life, dear friends.

With great love and respect,

I Am One Who
Knows that Attitude is All.

I Am One Who will
Help you navigate the stormy seas ahead.

I Am One Who
Witnesses how you cherish your Preferences,
Opinions, and your Righteousness,
And how unhappy that way of cherishing makes you.

I Am One Who helps you practice
Detaching from your preferences
And Cherishing What Is in the present moment.

When the seasons change, notice
What you cherish about the change,
About the new season, and
About the What Is-ness of the New Now.

Resources

• wherever I go, there I am.
  • Meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn gives advice about living a more harmonious empowered life.
• Creative Process
  • See Robert Fritz’s The Path of Least Resistance. Thirty-seven years ago, everything in my life changed for the better when I learned about becoming the Predominant Creative Force in my own life. Thank you, Bae Emilson and Robert Fritz for the priceless gift of resourceful autonomy.
• Indivisible.com
  • Describes the movement catalyzed by We are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump by Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin.
• another Ezra
  • (Klein) wrote Why We’re Polarized. I like this because he offers some solutions.
• An Interview with McKay Coppins
  • who is a staff writer for The Atlantic. Inform yourself by reading his new article is titled “The 2020 Disinformation War.”