What A Way To End My 49th Trip Around The Sun!

Wow!  Today is my 49th birthday, which means that I have successfully navigated my way around the sun on this little experiment we call planet Earth 49 times in a row.  I am at the end of 7 cycles of 7.  The rest of my journey is unwritten.  This is always the time when I take my deep personal inventory; where have I been, where am I going?

So apparently I chose to end this cycle with an explosion of white supremacy, xenophobia, and misogyny in my country.  What does this tell me?  It tells me I was getting complacent in my spiritual bubble, my nest of an office where I work one on one with people, and then drive home in my bubble at night.  All amazing and wonderful people I assure you, with expansive and loving hearts. Yet, this week tells me that's not enough; not enough risk, not enough speaking out, not enough support for vulnerable communities. 

This past year for me has been about finding certainty in my one on one work with my clients, and bigger yet has been the exponential expansion of my apprenticeship group.  These people are not only looking to grow and expand their personal spiritual experience, but to also find community with people who are also committed to looking at their whole self.  That means the shadow as well as the light.  

Community has been a challenge for me my whole life.  The word community has been in the center of my mesa for 3 years now because I knew that in order to move forward I needed to figure out my issues with community.  For many years I have said, "I'm not a joiner."  Why?  Because I believe that organizations prioritize the survival of the organization over the good of everyone involved.  Is that right or wrong?  I am guessing it depends on what the price is to the community it is serving.

So my question to myself as I launch myself into this 50th trip around the sun (at 11:56pm tonight) is how do I hold the foundation of the community that is asking me to create the space, opportunity, time, etc without it coming at the price of the highest good?