This week, I came across the image of a sacred well in Rome, a great city in the midst of a country shut down by the Coronavirus. I posted it on Instagram with a version of these words:
And still we go to the healing well to wash away the fear and to become whole again...
This global illness, with all its fear and consequences, is asking us to fight and surrender all at the same time.
We fight with hand sanitizer and knuckles raw from washing.
We surrender to the closures and cancellations and the belief that distance is the way to maintain community.
Throughout it all, we are called to pull on our own wells of wisdom. We are called to know when to refuse to fight and when to refuse to surrender.
Do not fight against a relentless tide that will only exhaust and stress you and compromise your immune system. Do not fight against your own intuition that guides you, whether it urge you to stay away or to show up and offer aid.
Do not surrender to the urge to hoard, to become suspicious, to lose hope.
Do not surrender to the belief that contagion is inevitable, disruption is catastrophic, and use any of this as an excuse to stop doing your good work.
We need you, the healer, the creative entrepreneur, the transformation professional now that ever.
Care for yourself and your dearest ones. Keep showing up for your wider network to share truth and hope and compassionate good sense.
Play with the urge to fight and the need to surrender.
Soften. Release. Heal. Continue this quest to become Sovereign and whole.
In this second edition of the Sovereign Standard, you’ll find a small collection of don’t-miss (virtual) events, meaning-filled articles, great listens, and important books that will help you live and tell a more powerful story in the midst of all this disruption.
Mark Your Calendar
Join the free, online community writing practice session coming up on Tuesday, March 17.
This is your time to “write it out as we ride it out.” Together, we’ll take to the page so you can get clear on what you're worried about, what you believe in, and what you need to do to be part of the collective healing and renewal.
Online learning will be more important than ever in the weeks to come. (See the note at the end of this message about how I am committed to making the Stand In Your Sovereign Story online program accessible to you, even though you might we worried about how the virus is impacting your economic situation.)
Flourishing Center CEO & Founder, Emiliya Zhivotovskaya is offering a free an online workshop on How to Create Online Workshops. Emiliya is an expert in positive psychology and has a remarkable knack for creating community.
Good Reads
COVID-19, Anxiety, and Other Contagions by Sara Eisenberg of A Life of Practice offers “fortune cookie and other wisdom for moving with life when ‘the new normal’ changes six times before breakfast.” It’s also a vulnerable look at our biases, against the body and against those who are labeled “other.”
My post from early this week, Storytelling & the Art of Life-Changing Magic seems almost quaint now, as I share the story about rediscovering the performer within me after more than twenty years away from the stage.
As everything from St. Paddy’s Day parades to sports seasons are being cancelled, it’s unclear whether I’ll be putting on the Sovereignty Knot show as planned on March 28, but I keep reminding myself that this is a lovely concern to have since it’s so easily rescheduled to when the time is right.
Good Listens
I’ve got Glennon Doyle’s Untamed in my earbuds this week. It’s exactly the break I need from the NPR headlines. I’m worried I’m bingeing it and it will be over too soon. Then I realized that I totally have permission to listen again.
Good Book
I am immersing myself in Theodora Goss’s Snow White Learns Witchcraft. Right now, we need stories that are encoded into our culture that are all spiked with modern imagination.
Final Note on Staying Nimble in a Changing World
I know that just about all of our businesses will be affected by this Coronavirus. Clients will cancel and will be afraid to commit resources to anything that doesn’t seem “essential.” This becomes an important time to plant new seeds, turning inward for a time before we all emerge again.
Please know that I am committed to offering the Stand in Your Sovereign Story online program as planned on April 14. And, I also committed to including all who want to be there, even though the financial situation seems unsure.
If you’re curious about the program but have not felt ready to commit, please reach out to me and we’ll talk about a “pay what you can model” that feels doable and nurturing.