No politics here. Just kind people seeking a peace beyond all understanding, and offering wisdom about how to show up with love to this cultural moment.
My word for 2024 was laughter. No matter what is happening, letting yourself laugh is a good way to love yourself. And making others laugh is one of the best ways to love someone else.
“Laugh till you weep," wrote Frederick Buechner. "Weep till there’s nothing left but to laugh at your weeping. In the end it’s all one.”
Jennie, I'm so glad you found us. I feel like Buechner is a spiritual grandfather of mine. Here's a word cloud I created for our community last year, based upon everyone's reports of their favorite authors. Welcome to our little corner of the internet. 😊
I love what you wrote...I am 86, sober 27 years, living in Vegas 27 years..I was a wardrobe seamstress for 15 years, am a caricature artist and a wannabe author. On December 3rd I will be moving into assisted living.
No more grocery shopping
No more floor mopping
My personal space is 10' x 7'
Isn't that smaller than a JAIL cell?
But the facility is nice with several LARGE areas for activities. Some of you may have read my 12 step take on how to keep a positive attitude after Nov 5. I'm doing fine and pray the rest of you are too.
Trust love. Thank you for that. I have been trying to figure out how to be, how to interact with people this morning, and had come as far as have faith. Trust love.
Jayne, "trust love" is clearly a crowd favorite, and for good reason. I love the way that you encapsulate the tension of being (allowing the unfolding) and doing (walk my own path). Thank you. "Trust love" is the mantra for the day.
Jayne, this is beautiful. I know a lot of people who still carry the "resist" mindset and your strength to move past that and into a better place for yourself is incredibly admirable.
Joy was my word for 2024. This brought me many opportunities to choose joy when seemingly a situation called for pain, loss, etc. Not in a toxic positivity way, but a way to acknowledge and move through whatever discomfort was arising.
"Joy is prayer – Joy is strength – Joy is love – Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls".
This is beautiful- it really spoke to me.I often feel like joy is an illusion and a bit afraid to be swept up in it but I really want to be caught in the net!
So valid Mary Clair! Sometimes joy can feel so fleeting, as if an illusion, or maybe we've been condition to watch/wait for the proverbial shoe to drop. I believe a daily mindfulness practice teaches us that it's there waiting for us. Waiting for us to trust, waiting for us to surrender, waiting for us to be free from all that weighs on our hearts and our minds. And when we're looking, without expectation, without judgment of the current situation, we're able to see our true nature. Which I believe is love and love is joy. May you be free to enJOY that net which appears when we let go of that fear! 😇🙏💖
You had me at "not in a toxic positivity way." I love a joy that has room in it for the sorrow. That is truly the kind of net that can catch souls. Grateful for your beautiful words, Linsea.
Aw, your kind words remind me of why we write; you never know when our desire to share (in our own unique way) will positively impact another. Thank you for starting this thread and giving this community a space to inspire others 💖
And listen from the infinite depth of your soul. Don’t listen from what you love, or what you think about what they love, or if you do or don’t love what they love. All of that is ego, which gets in the way of love.
Everybody loves something. Everybody loves something different than us. Connect into their love. Connect into their lovingness.
Listen to the depth of their love.
Love someone by asking “What do you love? Can you tell me about it?”
Wow. Thank you for this, James. Not just today, but every day. What an opportunity for connection that question creates. Not to mention, learning what someone loves will humanize them before your very eyes.
I'm in the midst of writing a book. I felt so much despair over the results that for a minute I thought why bother finishing. Thanks for this comment. It reminds me of the importance of continuing with what's mine to do.
Susan, the Swedish may have a saying like this but the origin is from St Julian of Norwich who received it in a vision of Christ who said ""All will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well." It's lovely how it flowed from culture to culture over the ages.
Yes, the two words that keep coming to my mind are simply be a LOVING PRESENCE.
I worked in the counseling field. People need someone to listen with their hearts. To truly hear them, and to offer space that is both loving and fully present.
Hope against hope. When leadership in many countries seems destructive more than life-giving; when community leadership fail to empower, it then challenge every individual to lead, serve, pray and to seek for justice.
Julia, one of my favorite parts of reading through the comments has been this community's intuitive valuing of the yin-yang of being-doing, and you've nailed it again, from a different angle. Hope, which sounds passive, but embodied through active leadership, service, prayer, and justice work. Thank you.
Yeah Julia, this! I don’t live in the US, but I feel this political situation in my bones, it rattles me and grieves me. And somehow it makes me extra aware of the importance of shining my light in my little corner of the world. People are so lost! I tend to think, in this world crowded with voices and stuff, that my extra noise is really unnecessary. But this election and your comment make me realize that my ‘small’ leadership probably matters more than I think. We’re all doing this work together, and I need to show up for it. Thank you so much for this!! All the best to you in wherever you lead!
I’ve read and re-read every word of this, this morning Kelly. It really resonated with my soul as a fellow healing professional and a human. I’ve also been in a space of sitting with the sorrow of not being able to speak and finding myself quieter and quieter over the past few months. Your words this morning helped me to identify this as sorrow, and not just anger and bitterness but the deeper question of what do I do with my difference when there doesn’t seem to be room for it at the table? Seeing this as sorrow to be sat with was a beautiful reframe I needed to hear.
Lisa, I'm so glad this resonated. More and more, I think our common sorrow is the most solid foundation upon which to build any community, whether it be locally, nationally, or globally. May your sorrow and peace flow like one river today, so you can taste both.
Lisa, your post resonated with me. The part about “being in a space of sitting with sorrow of not being able to speak and finding yourself getting quieter and quieter. “ I heard that and feel it. Thank you for putting that feeling into words I can relate to. I’m going to be trying to sit with this as well.
Hi Donna ❤️ thank you for sharing that. I really found Kelly’s words to help me to have shifted into that space of being able to sit with the sorrow of being quiet. I’m sitting in it today for sure and I’m finding peace in being able to have named it. I’m grateful it resonated with you too ❤️
2024 has been a year of sorrow in the loss of my daughter. Grief has invited me to slow down and taught me that you can't solve sorrow. Loss has led me deeper into vulnerability. I'm okay to wait there. The irony is that WAIT is the word I began with this year. I also appreciate TRUST LOVE. That becomes possible when I'm willing to wait in vulnerability.
A little something I learned in time of sorrow is that all pain and sorrow is of this body-mind. Nothing ever touches our soul. If you don’t identify with the body-mind and just be the energy which transforms constantly (which is true for your DD as well), you become stronger, indestructible. May you get the peace.
Cynthia, I'm so sorry for your loss. The number one most powerful thing I've learned this year in my own life and spiritual direction is how much I try to avoid vulnerability and yet how much it is my home, if I can only let myself reside there. Thank you for naming that as an indispensable part of trusting love. What a blessing that you showed up here in our community today.
The need to argue or fight occurs when I assume my peace is dependent on external factors and the world. Life, world flows per plans of the consciousness, I can just be. I don’t know the future or the past of why things happen the way they happen. Just Be and KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON…
Khayati, thank you for this. Before I settled on LAUGHTER, I considered STAY REGULATED, because a calm nervous system is such a pre-requisite for love. You said it much better than I would have. Thank you.
Kelly, thank you for putting this post and crowd sourcing comments today. We all need to be there for each other. That is the very definition of Being Human. I have followed you for more than 15 years through the ups and downs of my own life. It felt good to connect. Thank you.
What came to me tonight is "My kingdom is not of this world." Until tonight, I believed in democracy. My work is to be present to my grief, the after the crucifixion emptiness and loss, and put my faith in the resurrection, a higher kingdom and way of being, and continuing to cultivate loving community.
Mmm. Wow, Jane. When I read your comment, I immediately analogized democracy to this gorgeous oak tree outside my window. They're both beautiful creations worthy of our awe and respect, but they can both be blown down in a storm. Therefore, best not to "believe" in either, but to dedicate ourselves to growing more of them. I'm so grateful you give some of yourself to cultivating love in our community.
Forgive them, for they do not know what they do. People are voting for change and in hopes of a better economy, or so they think. They may well be poor judges of how government actually works and indeed fools to re-elect a convicted felon. They may well encourage cruelty in service to their own frustrations. But we can treat that foolishness and cruelty not by excusing it but with humility for what we may not know, and forgive their mistaken beliefs, as we as to be forgiven for our own errors. There is always work to be done in the service of justice; let us continue the work while loving all, including the so-called “enemies” (and indeed, the real ones in Russia and China as well).
Chuck, it occurred to me last night that those on the losing side of the ticket might feel an awful lot like Christ on the cross: wrongly rejected and abandoned. What a powerful reminder of what His ultimate response was to that experience. Thank you.
Lament is real and active and a faithful response to the hurt of the world. Hate is not and only fans the flames of injustice. I feel like quitting but shalom will never come if we aren’t able to love our neighbors. But I will definitely lament this corrupt and sad season.
Lament. That moved me, Jennie, because I think I needed to be reminded of the active side of sitting with sorrow. Thank you for naming the active energy of lament.
not big on self-promotion but I’d like to send you my book Designed to Heal. It was written and published in the pandemic and didn’t have a great #sold. But it’s all about moving from chronic woundedness and division to healing, using the human body as a metaphor/image
Ah yes, I have one of those pandemic not-great-numbers books, as well. 😊Please do send it, I’d be honored to receive it. You can message me for contact info. Thank you, Jennie!
LAUGHTER.
My word for 2024 was laughter. No matter what is happening, letting yourself laugh is a good way to love yourself. And making others laugh is one of the best ways to love someone else.
“Laugh till you weep," wrote Frederick Buechner. "Weep till there’s nothing left but to laugh at your weeping. In the end it’s all one.”
Kelly I’m new to your work but am so grateful. And Buechner is a favorite of mine.
Jennie, I'm so glad you found us. I feel like Buechner is a spiritual grandfather of mine. Here's a word cloud I created for our community last year, based upon everyone's reports of their favorite authors. Welcome to our little corner of the internet. 😊
https://drkellyflanagan.substack.com/p/three-belated-christmas-gifts-for
I see many of my companions there. Rilke will give me some words for this day.
I love the way this community attracts like-hearted souls. 😊
I enjoy Rilke's words so much.
I love what you wrote...I am 86, sober 27 years, living in Vegas 27 years..I was a wardrobe seamstress for 15 years, am a caricature artist and a wannabe author. On December 3rd I will be moving into assisted living.
No more grocery shopping
No more floor mopping
My personal space is 10' x 7'
Isn't that smaller than a JAIL cell?
But the facility is nice with several LARGE areas for activities. Some of you may have read my 12 step take on how to keep a positive attitude after Nov 5. I'm doing fine and pray the rest of you are too.
Kate, you may be the first person ever to say: I moved to Vegas and I’ve been sober ever since. 😊
I love your story and your spirit. Thank you for sharing here, I hope you’ll continue to hang out with us and let us know how your transition went!
Kate, just think of all the time and mental space you will have in your new 10 x 7 Prayer Closet to Write your Book! Go for it, girl!!!
Yes! I try to laugh at myself first. Then I’ll laugh at you! 😀
Deal! 😊
😆
You and Adam Grant! He posted on Insta today “sometimes laughter is the best medicine! 😂
He usually knows what he's talking about, so I'll take it. 😊
SURRENDER RESISTANCE FOR PEACE.
Accept what IS. Allow the unfolding. Walk my own path. Immerse myself in the beauty of nature. Trust love.
Trust love. I LOVE that. Thank you for writing that simple, and essential, two word sentence. ❤️
Surrender is such a powerful energy. It's a dance between an active state of letting go and finding peace within the chaos.
Well said, Linsea. I noticed that dance between receiving and acting, too. There's truth in that tension.
Trust love. Thank you for that. I have been trying to figure out how to be, how to interact with people this morning, and had come as far as have faith. Trust love.
Have faith. Thanks for adding that to trust love, Sheila. Different facets of the same diamond.
Love the acceptance and turning to focus on love and peace.
So well said, surrender resistance for peace and love. This world is just love.
Trust Love! Beautiful!
Jayne, "trust love" is clearly a crowd favorite, and for good reason. I love the way that you encapsulate the tension of being (allowing the unfolding) and doing (walk my own path). Thank you. "Trust love" is the mantra for the day.
Jayne, this is beautiful. I know a lot of people who still carry the "resist" mindset and your strength to move past that and into a better place for yourself is incredibly admirable.
Love that! You may have just started a revolution against resistance!
Folks often see surrender as defeat, but it’s the very opposite. It’s recognizing what’s true.
JOY
Joy was my word for 2024. This brought me many opportunities to choose joy when seemingly a situation called for pain, loss, etc. Not in a toxic positivity way, but a way to acknowledge and move through whatever discomfort was arising.
"Joy is prayer – Joy is strength – Joy is love – Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls".
“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls".
Wow. So true and so LOVING 🥰
Thank you Linsea.
This is beautiful- it really spoke to me.I often feel like joy is an illusion and a bit afraid to be swept up in it but I really want to be caught in the net!
So valid Mary Clair! Sometimes joy can feel so fleeting, as if an illusion, or maybe we've been condition to watch/wait for the proverbial shoe to drop. I believe a daily mindfulness practice teaches us that it's there waiting for us. Waiting for us to trust, waiting for us to surrender, waiting for us to be free from all that weighs on our hearts and our minds. And when we're looking, without expectation, without judgment of the current situation, we're able to see our true nature. Which I believe is love and love is joy. May you be free to enJOY that net which appears when we let go of that fear! 😇🙏💖
You had me at "not in a toxic positivity way." I love a joy that has room in it for the sorrow. That is truly the kind of net that can catch souls. Grateful for your beautiful words, Linsea.
Aw, your kind words remind me of why we write; you never know when our desire to share (in our own unique way) will positively impact another. Thank you for starting this thread and giving this community a space to inspire others 💖
You all give back far more inspiration than you receive. 🙏🏻
ASK SOMEONE: “WHAT DO YOU LOVE?”
And listen from the infinite depth of your soul. Don’t listen from what you love, or what you think about what they love, or if you do or don’t love what they love. All of that is ego, which gets in the way of love.
Everybody loves something. Everybody loves something different than us. Connect into their love. Connect into their lovingness.
Listen to the depth of their love.
Love someone by asking “What do you love? Can you tell me about it?”
Yes! Listening (wholebeingly) is an act of love.
Wow. Thank you for this, James. Not just today, but every day. What an opportunity for connection that question creates. Not to mention, learning what someone loves will humanize them before your very eyes.
Great way to enter into a conversation that centers on delight!
WRITE THE STORY I'VE BEEN GIVEN TO WRITE. DO MY CREATIVE WORK.
This is beautiful, yes, write the story I’ve been given to write without resistance and argument.
I'm in the midst of writing a book. I felt so much despair over the results that for a minute I thought why bother finishing. Thanks for this comment. It reminds me of the importance of continuing with what's mine to do.
Please don’t cede your personal creativity and power to something outside yourself. The world needs your words to come to life. ❤️
Yes, yes, yes, James. Don't let your pain stop you from writing, Jane. Let it be one fo the reasons you write.
Keep writing, Jane.
YES, Cynthia. I can see others here needed to hear that today too. Thank you. I can't wait to see what you write next!
TRUST even when the doubts creep in, let them go and steer a steady path. ‘All shall be well’
Trusting in the fundamental okayness of things. What a good word. Thank you, Mary Clair.
Trust can release us from control. It’s also a brave choice to live in the “all will be well” perspective.
I love the old Swedish saying: All will be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Susan, the Swedish may have a saying like this but the origin is from St Julian of Norwich who received it in a vision of Christ who said ""All will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well." It's lovely how it flowed from culture to culture over the ages.
That's right...now that you say it, I remember that was the origin. Thank you, Mary. It's always been a blessing to me to remember those words.
Love this exchange.
PRESENCE. Staying present for others and keeping my heart open even in the midst of differing beliefs and viewpoints.
Victoria, the way you say that, presence almost sounds like a synonym for love. Thank you.
Open hearted living! Thanks for the reminder to be a living invitation to others.
Yes, the two words that keep coming to my mind are simply be a LOVING PRESENCE.
I worked in the counseling field. People need someone to listen with their hearts. To truly hear them, and to offer space that is both loving and fully present.
Hope against hope. When leadership in many countries seems destructive more than life-giving; when community leadership fail to empower, it then challenge every individual to lead, serve, pray and to seek for justice.
Julia, one of my favorite parts of reading through the comments has been this community's intuitive valuing of the yin-yang of being-doing, and you've nailed it again, from a different angle. Hope, which sounds passive, but embodied through active leadership, service, prayer, and justice work. Thank you.
Yeah Julia, this! I don’t live in the US, but I feel this political situation in my bones, it rattles me and grieves me. And somehow it makes me extra aware of the importance of shining my light in my little corner of the world. People are so lost! I tend to think, in this world crowded with voices and stuff, that my extra noise is really unnecessary. But this election and your comment make me realize that my ‘small’ leadership probably matters more than I think. We’re all doing this work together, and I need to show up for it. Thank you so much for this!! All the best to you in wherever you lead!
"Small leadership" is now one of my new favorite phrases. It's meaningful and doable. Thank you, Lara.
I’ve read and re-read every word of this, this morning Kelly. It really resonated with my soul as a fellow healing professional and a human. I’ve also been in a space of sitting with the sorrow of not being able to speak and finding myself quieter and quieter over the past few months. Your words this morning helped me to identify this as sorrow, and not just anger and bitterness but the deeper question of what do I do with my difference when there doesn’t seem to be room for it at the table? Seeing this as sorrow to be sat with was a beautiful reframe I needed to hear.
Lisa, I'm so glad this resonated. More and more, I think our common sorrow is the most solid foundation upon which to build any community, whether it be locally, nationally, or globally. May your sorrow and peace flow like one river today, so you can taste both.
Lisa, your post resonated with me. The part about “being in a space of sitting with sorrow of not being able to speak and finding yourself getting quieter and quieter. “ I heard that and feel it. Thank you for putting that feeling into words I can relate to. I’m going to be trying to sit with this as well.
Hi Donna ❤️ thank you for sharing that. I really found Kelly’s words to help me to have shifted into that space of being able to sit with the sorrow of being quiet. I’m sitting in it today for sure and I’m finding peace in being able to have named it. I’m grateful it resonated with you too ❤️
2024 has been a year of sorrow in the loss of my daughter. Grief has invited me to slow down and taught me that you can't solve sorrow. Loss has led me deeper into vulnerability. I'm okay to wait there. The irony is that WAIT is the word I began with this year. I also appreciate TRUST LOVE. That becomes possible when I'm willing to wait in vulnerability.
A little something I learned in time of sorrow is that all pain and sorrow is of this body-mind. Nothing ever touches our soul. If you don’t identify with the body-mind and just be the energy which transforms constantly (which is true for your DD as well), you become stronger, indestructible. May you get the peace.
Cynthia, I'm so sorry for your loss. The number one most powerful thing I've learned this year in my own life and spiritual direction is how much I try to avoid vulnerability and yet how much it is my home, if I can only let myself reside there. Thank you for naming that as an indispensable part of trusting love. What a blessing that you showed up here in our community today.
Sorry for your loss. Embracing our grief and loss softens our hearts for ourselves and others.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON…
The need to argue or fight occurs when I assume my peace is dependent on external factors and the world. Life, world flows per plans of the consciousness, I can just be. I don’t know the future or the past of why things happen the way they happen. Just Be and KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON…
Khayati, thank you for this. Before I settled on LAUGHTER, I considered STAY REGULATED, because a calm nervous system is such a pre-requisite for love. You said it much better than I would have. Thank you.
Kelly, thank you for putting this post and crowd sourcing comments today. We all need to be there for each other. That is the very definition of Being Human. I have followed you for more than 15 years through the ups and downs of my own life. It felt good to connect. Thank you.
So good! “I can just be.” After I read that encouragement I heard the word “free.”
What came to me tonight is "My kingdom is not of this world." Until tonight, I believed in democracy. My work is to be present to my grief, the after the crucifixion emptiness and loss, and put my faith in the resurrection, a higher kingdom and way of being, and continuing to cultivate loving community.
Mmm. Wow, Jane. When I read your comment, I immediately analogized democracy to this gorgeous oak tree outside my window. They're both beautiful creations worthy of our awe and respect, but they can both be blown down in a storm. Therefore, best not to "believe" in either, but to dedicate ourselves to growing more of them. I'm so grateful you give some of yourself to cultivating love in our community.
Forgive them, for they do not know what they do. People are voting for change and in hopes of a better economy, or so they think. They may well be poor judges of how government actually works and indeed fools to re-elect a convicted felon. They may well encourage cruelty in service to their own frustrations. But we can treat that foolishness and cruelty not by excusing it but with humility for what we may not know, and forgive their mistaken beliefs, as we as to be forgiven for our own errors. There is always work to be done in the service of justice; let us continue the work while loving all, including the so-called “enemies” (and indeed, the real ones in Russia and China as well).
Chuck, it occurred to me last night that those on the losing side of the ticket might feel an awful lot like Christ on the cross: wrongly rejected and abandoned. What a powerful reminder of what His ultimate response was to that experience. Thank you.
LAMENT OVER HATE OR QUITTING
Lament is real and active and a faithful response to the hurt of the world. Hate is not and only fans the flames of injustice. I feel like quitting but shalom will never come if we aren’t able to love our neighbors. But I will definitely lament this corrupt and sad season.
Lament. That moved me, Jennie, because I think I needed to be reminded of the active side of sitting with sorrow. Thank you for naming the active energy of lament.
Hi Kelly, I’ve done some writing on that. I’m
not big on self-promotion but I’d like to send you my book Designed to Heal. It was written and published in the pandemic and didn’t have a great #sold. But it’s all about moving from chronic woundedness and division to healing, using the human body as a metaphor/image
Ah yes, I have one of those pandemic not-great-numbers books, as well. 😊Please do send it, I’d be honored to receive it. You can message me for contact info. Thank you, Jennie!
FOCUS INTERNALLY.
True change starts within me and under my own roof. If I truly want to have an impact on the world, it shall start there.
Right on, Matt. Mother Theresa: "f you want to change the world, go home and love your family." You're in good company, my friend.
IN RELATIONSHIPS TURN TO CURIOSITY AND WONDER
DETERMINE TO BE A NON-ANXIOUS LOVING PRESENCE IN THE WORLD
"A non-anxious loving presence in the world." Boom. Thank you for this, my friend, and for encouraging others here in this space.
Love this! AND, for me, seeing the word “anxious” triggers an anxiety loop in my mind. So, i am substituting “peaceFULL” for “non-anxious”.
I will be a peaceFULL loving presence in my world. ✌️💗🙏