In my classes, my favorite moment is nearly always the check-in. I include this moment in every class I teach, because I love hearing from you.
I’m always moved by how much we have in common – both in our struggles and in our striving.
Lately, there’s a theme that’s come up in every recent class I’ve taught. It’s that delicate dance we experience in motherhood, and in fact in all of life, between holding tight and letting go.
This is alive for us right now for different reasons. Some of us, after being home with our child or baby, are going back to work. Others are sending a child to school for the first time.
For some of us, myself included, it’s both these things. My son, Ember, who turns five next month, will start school five days a week for the first time, AND I’ll be teaching almost every day which means more time away from my two year old.
To face increased separation from our child is a huge transition. It can bring up so many complex feelings. And even if it is a change we basically feel ready for, it is bittersweet.
I feel passionately that facing a moment like this, women need support.
But it is more than that.
I believe that we need ritual.
We need experiences that can provide the safe space to feel and move through our feelings in community. To find shared strength, common ground, and a sense of how our own individual experience fits into the big picture.
So I have two offerings today that I hope can help meet that need for us.
First, a song. (You’ll learn it in the video.)
Sing it on your way to work, hum it in the bathroom during lunch hour. Sing it when you need to feel your child close.
It will help you tap into the sense in which we are all connected. Always.
And that is a bond that can never be severed. Not by time. Not by distance. Not by anything.
Second, I want to invite you to our gathering on August 20th. At this gathering, we will talk, sing, laugh, do a guided meditation, and hold space for one another around the theme of Holding Tight and Letting Go.
This event is warmly open to all women in transition, whatever that may mean to you.
Thank you for listening, and blessings on your journey!
Warmly,
Noe Venable