I’m grateful to have found a community of people in the New Republic of the Heart who are willing to be in the unknown as a place of possibility. It’s an empowering and safe “we-space” in which to learn, grow and develop both as individuals and as a collective; where solutions are sourced from within.

I am now a few months into the 2020 New Republic of the Heart Course and am being asked to create a “soul work statement”; something that speaks to the questions, “What is the gift I am here to give to the world? What is being asked of me? How can I help? How can I serve?”

As I think deeply on where I’m at on my own personal journey, where we’re at on our collective journey, and what kind of world I want to help create and how we might best go about it, I feel a letting go of an “old” way of being and emergence of something new. I feel an archetypal shift from the “Warrior” to the “Lover”.

As my energy shifts from Warrior to Lover, I experience a shift in orientation from “me against you” to “you are me”, from “right against wrong” to “all is partially right”. I ask myself, “What is being wanted or expressed here?” as I shift from an “either/or” mindset to “both/and”.

I used to think…

If I was not vigilant, I would be harmed.

If I was not right, I would be lost.

If I was not fierce, I would be overcome.

If I was not angry, I would not have the energy.

If I did not discern, I would be vulnerable.

If I did not defend, who would?

I no longer buy into the Warrior’s anger or anguish, or his stance of “meeting and slaying the enemy” (out there OR in here). I no longer buy into the win/lose morality of repentance, despair, or self-flagellation. I no longer buy into the polarization and judgements of “dignities and disasters”, of victory and defeat. I no longer buy into the idea of “it’s too late”.

I thank the Warrior for the discipline, self-confidence, clarity, and strength he has brought to my life, and I now choose the Lover.

The Lover is about deeply connecting with who we are and what we love. The Lover looks for fulfillment in relationship with who and what he loves. The Lover experiences a sense of wholeness and connection to others.

When I look through the eyes of the Lover…

I see rightness and goodness.

I see possibility.

I see wholeness.

I celebrate all of this, and I feel joy.

I embrace the Lover’s optimism, passion, excitement, inspiration. I choose the Lover’s work of “know and love myself” so that I can better know and love you. I orient myself and my perspective that I may see and celebrate the wonders in our world; to find and shift the limitations within me, limitations that prevent my seeing and celebrating the possibilities that exist all around.

I trust that the energy and wisdom that bubble out of celebrating what I love about our world will guide and carry me forward. I ask for wisdom and clarity as I move forward into action that transforms what’s NOT working and what’s not serving. I ask for guidance as I resolve to bring a NEW way of thinking and being that creates a world that works for all of us. 

As Terry Patten says in his book, New Republic of the Heart, “Paradoxically, to engage in effective change requires a profound trust in what is—a deep surrender to a source we cannot name… Healthy activism is most fundamentally an expression of care rather than anger. It is love in action.”

In the spirit of the Lover, and in answer to Rumi’s call, I invite you to join me. “Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”