To Our Men

I see you. You are welcome here. All of you, just as you are. You are unspeakably beautiful in your courage.

This is what I witness:

You are arriving, reemerging, on social media, as never before. Many of you, for the first time, or the first time in a long time. Feeling broken. Weak. Uncertain. Angry. Useless. Purposeless. Trapped. Confined, like a tiger in a cage. Like a DRAGON in a cage.

Especially those of you who are sheltering alone, right now. I witness you. My heart feels you.

You (all of us) are facing isolation as never before. Stillness. Time, stretching before you in unfamiliar ways. And crisis. A threat far beyond the reach of your single sword. A threat that could touch, could destroy, everyone you love. Everything you have built with your bare hands. All of your kingdom.

Maybe you’ve been laid off. Maybe you’re working from home. Maybe your city is on lockdown. For who knows how long.

You want connection, you crave it, but you are afraid. To reach out to the feminine, for fear of seeming creepy or needy or predatory. To reach out to other men, for fear of seeming week or needy or unmasculine. You are doubly trapped. Doubly confined.

And the question is now arising: who are you?

🗡 Who are you, if you are not doing, providing, commanding, creating?

🗡 Who are you, if you cannot protect those you love?

🗡 Who are you, if the one thing you must do now, is lay down your arms and do nothing?

Know that we need you. Just as you are. That this time, of isolation, of austerity, is a time to find your heart. To meet yourself in your darkest places; to allow them to arise, to welcome them and, with all your courage, accept them, let them pass through you.

We, the Feminine, need you. Your children need you. All the people, need you.

Your own heart, needs you.

You have been the Warrior, the King. Now, it is Time to bring to bear all of your courage, all of your strength and power and intelligence and skill, into this new challenge:

✨How can I bear to feel all that is arising in me? Can I learn to feel in my body, in real time, and let these feelings move through me, one by one? Over and over?

✨What practices do I need now, to come back to center? Physically? Emotionally? Spiritually?

✨Can I have the discipline to stop reaching for my phone? for the news, for distraction, and be in my own company?

✨Why am I not enough, when I am with myself? Can I find and face those places, without flinching? Can I accept them and learn to love them?

✨Can I be fully present with those who are with me now, physically? Be fully present, to all they are feeling and expressing in this moment? Can I hold the container for them to feel everything – grief, fear, longing, anger, rage, compassion, sorrow, hope, love – and allow, not resist, all that is present?

I witness you. I love you. You are welcome here.

I want to hear from you. What do you need, in this time, in order to take on this sacred work? Is there more we need to hear, about where and how you are right now? What are your practices, now, that are working? What can you learn from each other?