From Shane Piñata,
I'm Colleen Thomas.
This is Everyday Magic for Ukraine.
Today we hold space for the moments when advocacy feels hard.
Welcome to the Circle.
Welcome to Everyday Magic for Ukraine,
Where we honor Ukraine and we also practice self-care to stay strong as allies.
If you're new here,
Welcome,
And if you're returning,
Welcome back.
So the only thing you need today is your honest heart,
Because there's been a lot of really hard news coming out lately of the West's support or non-support of Ukraine.
So if you are one of us and you're feeling this in your heart,
I invite you to spend a little bit of time with us today just being real and being honest.
So the first thing we always do when we get together is some kind of grounding,
Some kind of regulation,
And I think today is a really good day for that.
So perhaps we could just do our good old grounding,
Good old connection down to the earth beneath us.
And so for that,
I invite you to notice what you are sitting,
Standing,
Or lying on and allow the weight of your body to drop a little more effortlessly down,
Down toward the earth.
Just letting your awareness drop down,
Just drop straight,
Straight down,
Finding the crust of the earth and then dropping into the earth herself.
I invite you to land in your seat in the circle and open your eyes on the inner,
Perhaps seeing the rest of us populating this circle with you.
And so if you like,
Feel free to place a hand on that honest heart you've brought to circle today or connect with your heart in whatever way feels right to you.
What I would love to offer us today is a place where we can rest for a few minutes,
Where we can acknowledge how much of our hearts are in this work and how magical and wonderful it is that we've shown up for almost three years for this country that has been at war for almost three years.
And we've been here with our donations and our care and our focus and our advocacy and our magic.
And it's our strong hearts that have called us here.
It's in our hearts where we have felt a loss and a threat and a need and a desire and a compulsion maybe to show up for Ukraine.
It's our hearts that have led us here.
And coming here with our hearts also really makes us very vulnerable to the heartbreak of moments when things do not feel good,
When things do not feel right.
When the forces working against Ukraine have gotten stronger.
And so I want to welcome your heart here with all of the ways it's been brave and amazing and an ally and all of the ways that it makes us vulnerable.
And so our hearts need space to heal.
And so today I would just love to bathe our hearts in love,
Bathe our hearts in rest and reflection and community and truth and the beauty of everything that we're working for.
The reason we showed up,
The reason we're here.
So I'll guide us through a short meditation to connect with and nurture our hearts.
So beginning with wherever you are,
Wherever you are in your day or your night,
Whatever's going on in your world,
Kind of just carving out a little bit of a sacred space just for a few minutes with us here in circle.
This is a chance to connect to your heart,
To say hello,
To say how are you,
To say I'm here with you.
Just feeling very,
Very gently into your heart space.
What do you see?
What do you feel in your heart?
Do you see different colors?
Do you feel a variety of emotions?
Is there grief?
Is there joy?
Is there anger?
Feeling how your heart is,
Noticing what your heart has to tell you right now.
If your heart could speak to you,
What would it say?
And if your heart could speak to the circle,
What would it say?
And if your heart could speak to the world,
What would it say?
And if your heart could speak to your friends in Ukraine,
The land in Ukraine,
What would it say?
And now I invite you to imagine that your heart itself has a grounding cord.
So you might imagine a bit of grounding going right down from your heart chakra,
Right down through your body,
Right down into the earth.
And if this feels good to you,
See what it would feel like to release anything you don't need from your heart.
Just letting anything that's ready to leave,
Just letting it go gently down that cord.
And now I invite you to picture or imagine or sense a light around your heart.
This is a light from the universe,
From goddess God,
From the highest place you can find,
The highest place you connect with and allow this light to fill your heart,
To nurture and care for and restore your heart.
And to fill your heart back up with love and with fullness and with promise and hope to fill into those places where you released something out.
And just take a few moments to allow this light to fill your heart until your heart itself begins to vibrate at the vibration of this light.
And then you can let your heart expand.
Let that light,
That beautiful light in your heart radiate out.
So just sort of cleaning,
Clearing the heart,
Rejuvenating it and beginning to allow it to again put your love into the world,
Vibrate at the level of your heart,
Your frequency,
Your own perfect magic that you put into the world simply by living.
And remember how special you are,
How unique and needed you are in the circle and on this planet.
And notice maybe how your heart feels now.
And we're going to begin to transition out of today's meditation.
And I'd like to leave us with some words from Svetlana Moronets,
Who spoke on Ukraine The Latest last week.
She said,
The best thing we can do now is to try not to fall into despair.
The fight is not over yet and much can still change.
May it be so.
Thank you so much for being with us today.
Your presence,
Your energy and your heart make all the difference in healing our world.
Remember to breathe today,
Breathe and expand.
And I hope you join us again next time.
Please consider inviting a friend.
