Freedom From Your Slavery, the Opportunity of a Lifetime

Passover, 2020.

Weird. It's all weird. And hard.

As I sit here writing, I'm smelling Passover. It's not just the aroma in my mind, it's actual smells wafting up from our kitchen where my husband is hard at work almost 'as if' we'll have everyone here tonight, coming together in person to tell the story of the exodus. But this year, that whole 'exodus thing' has a new meaning for me. Is it an ironic twist of fate for the pandemic to be coinciding w/Passover? Or, rather, the penultimate offering, an opportunity to go in, go deep; to reflect on life as I've created it to be. In the current normal of isolation, perhaps an opportunity to consider my role, my part in a greater good, my personal impact that we now know literally has global ramifications. Is it just about the pandemic, the virus infecting nation after nation? Or could it be other things, too? Could there be other ways-positive ways-that I, personally, could impact civilization today?

But in order to do, perhaps, it is incumbent that we explore our own personal slavery, explore the ties that may keep us bound up and struggling. What if....

What if this is an opportunity to consider our own personal exodus? To consider what holds me back from fleeing? And this: using the analogy of 'bread not having the time to rise,' what if we are being offered an opportunity~this year unlike any other year~to explore: "Have I held myself back from rising?" What is the 'bread' of my life? What would it look like if I gave it time to rise? Perhaps, this extraordinary year of 2020, we can extrapolate 40 years crossing the dry dissonant desert down to 40 days...that would be May 18, 2020. After your personal crossing of the desert, how might you emerge on May 18? It will be full-on Spring around our country. By then, will we be meeting up in person, hugging and holding each other fiercely for having missed the opportunity to do? We shall see. 

In the meantime, consider: can it be your personal Spring? Is this the time to reflect, to discard physical, mental and emotional baggage to quickly flee slavery and run toward your own freedom? The freedom of your enslaved body, mind and spirit-in this life free to be who you really wanted to be, free to do what you really wanted to do, free to act in the way that only you can give yourself permission to do? If I've learned nothing else from the march of this pandemic person-to-person across the globe, I've learned that what each and every one of us does, matters. And tonight, during the Passover seder celebrated 'alone and together,' we have the opportunity to tell the story again; and to see ourselves with the opportunity to be personally delivered from our own 'egypt.'

[written with appreciation to Nechama Wasserman Laber for teaching me and for sharing her wisdom, and to Katherine Englebardt for her upcoming book 6 Pathways to Personal Freedom, due out 2020]

Your gift for the asking, a free journaling page for your Jewish soul. Contact me directly at susan@confident-life.com and I’ll email the pdf, with love. Susan 

Entreaty For Our Time

Progress or regress? Life got too busy, too chaotic; too much. Leaders reduced to power mongering, workers stressed beyond human limits, families stretched beyond patience and love, children over-scheduled and burdened into obesity, depression even suicide. The richest in the world lived high and kept it to themselves while the poorest died in the streets. Religious leaders abused their flocks, organized religion crumbled. Human sensibility dimmed and the earth suffered.

Modern day, or pre-1789 France? Were we actually in the best of times? Are we in the worst of times, yet? Yes and no, no and yes. From nearly the beginning of recorded time, there is evidence of gain and loss, strength and weakness, hubris and humility. Will there ever be a time in human history when this is not so? Perhaps, if in the future humans become genetically integrated with robotic circuits that dull emotions and create a false sense of ‘stable’ mental outlook. Until that time, with incalculable passion we rail, we cry, we shout and fight, we laugh and we love. Until that time, we emote from the deepest place of power we were given, the Soul.

What is it that is happening in the world today? Is it an ‘unseen foe,’ lack of preparation and selfish leadership by those in power or a long, slow decline of concern about humanity and the earth? Looking for an enemy is the human response, blaming others for everything is the go-to for most; it always has been. ‘Not my fault’ becomes ‘not my problem’ and as such, Soul-the greatest concern of all that is-suffers and goes in deep, down into the darkest recesses of consciousness. When the Soul is shuddering and shuttered, the human vessel is then permitted to live as it wants, in self-orientation, with total lack of consideration for ‘other’ or for the greater good of humanity and of our earth. And darkness reigns. Then, sadness, depression, despair, anxiety and fear propel up, out and swirl around each human and throughout the universe.

But there is light

If you can catch your breath, if you can stretch out your body and quiet your mind for just a moment, if you can clear your head, open your eyes, then you can see the beauty still around you. Look for it. It’s in the earth that our Mother renews annually in spring, buds sprouting through the cold earth. It’s in the human race that the Divine deems worthy to continue no matter what, babies still being born. You see it in the stories of the mundane, of one person reaching out to another; of a child’s delight, of an elder sharing wisdom gleaned and gained with a younger. Of humans connecting over the internet checking in with relationships formerly forgotten or neglected. 

You see it in a city cheering on the heroes on the front line of today, in the suburbs where neighbors out walking see, as if for a first-time, other neighbors. You see it in women paying their stylists and cleaners now for future visits that may not happen. You see it in tens of thousands of workers volunteering their skills to help and support others. You see it in the water in Venice, clear and blue for the first time in generations. You see it in severely reduced emissions and pollution. The earth, renewing; humanity responding.

An entreaty for all time

Ask yourself the still-relevant age-old entreaty first put to us two thousand years ago: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” (on self-care, putting on your oxygen mask first) and then: “If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” (on consideration of humanity and taking action). [Rabbi Hillel, c. 110 BCE–10 CE]

The follow-up question to consider, the entreaty for our time is this: “Who do I want to be and how do I want to be; what can I do?” This simple question asked over and over by humans throughout the world can help turn on the light that dispels darkness. It is the ultimate control, in your control. Each and every one taking personal responsibility for humanity and the earth. Activating your brain by asking this simple question, activating your heart by taking action will fuel your Soul’s Rise. As Soul rises, growing light will dispel the darkness. Start with loving your self more, move quickly from self to other, love others without judgment, find faith and community that supports and you will feel rejoined with humanity; being the light that is needed in our time.

Susan Lowenthal Axelrod is a momma, writer, coach, and speaker showing by example that truly anyone can lead today. Take the reins of your own life and act, now and lead others to the light. www.whatwillyourlegacybe.com | susan@confide

I am Enough

But am I? Am I enough? How can I believe this when others appear to be doing so much more, accomplishing so much more, earning so much more? I torture myself; thoughts racing through my consciousness, asking but knowing, deep down. “No, you are not.” If you were, you would be getting more ‘right,’ accomplishing more, having wider impact, earning more money, and be more well-known. Abject misery creeps in, landing in the recesses of the mind. I breathe.

Am I a fraud, then? Do I not tell my clients and others that ‘more’ for the sake of More is not better? Am I being disingenuous when I proclaim that ‘deeper’ is better? Is it not true, then, that we need people to go deeper? Each one of us, in our own way, in whatever area sparks imagination and interest; each has the opportunity to drill down below the surface, below the façade of our lives. To get to the core, the deepest place of desire, the soul. To the place of personal soul-connectedness that generates personal authenticity. The authenticity that creates ‘enough-ness,’ the state of mind that repairs our state of being. And, is it not incumbent, now more than ever, to be in a repaired state of being?

The answer is Yes! Yes, to all! Yes, it is incumbent for each and every soul on earth to go deep, deeper still, to seek and find the core. To breathe and love and repair the cracks and the very sinew that runs through and holds together the body; to find your place of enough-ness. Be brave! Scratch your surface, find a crack, allow light to shine in. Do not be afraid of the light. Just allow the light to shine through, go deep and seep in. The only thing that will happen is that there will be light there! There will be light in your darkness if you allow it. Then, it is there in that place of repair, of healing that you can step out and shine. And in that light, you can know, you are enough.

Let us each take whatever responsibility we need to in order to claim enough-ness, to feel enough, to really know we are enough so that we can be the ‘more’ we seek. What, then, will you do with your enough-ness? What will you share, what light will you then shed for others, to light their way? Get clear, get confident, stand in your light; shine and lead. Our world needs you to feel enough, to be enough and to shine your personal light of impact.