To my beloved EM Community,
This is the time of year and moment when I always feel called upon to communicate with you and speak from my heart to yours. This is the year I turned 75. I am in awe of the incredible richness of my life, the terrains I have traveled with all the mountains and valleys… storms and calm seas… beauty… the sunlight. At this very moment, the sun is warming my face. Yet, these times are also deeply challenging. I notice how much I am asked to feel my fears and anger, and to channel or transform them into a more softened and charitable heart.
I recently heard an interview with the current US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy. He was asked, “If you could change one thing as Surgeon General that would be immutable for the long haul, what would it be?”
He responded: “If I could change one thing, it would be: I would want us to very explicitly and unapologetically place love at the center of our lives as a galvanizing force in our society.” He then ended his interview with a question that he asks himself daily: “What would love do in a given circumstance as opposed to fear.” He says, “It’s a question you want to ask yourself throughout life.”
This question evokes my charitable heart. It leads me to the practices of gratitude, kindness, and compassion towards myself and all those I encounter in the greater world.
I have struggled with what I might say to you in these particularly disturbing times. I’ve been asking myself why I feel compelled to write an end-of-year letter to my community. Perhaps I just want to communicate my love, care, and fervent hope that by staying connected to our hearts and one another, we can buoy each other to ride the stormy seas and still be able to savor the moments that touch us: sun on the face, sunsets, the laughter of children, the voice of a loved one, a delicious chocolate chip cookie.
What makes your heart sing? Give yourself time every day to pause, be kind to yourself, and move your body in ways that bring you joy. Sense your feet on this precious earth. 75 brings me to my knees in the awareness of the absolute preciousness of this moment and my commitment to walk in gratitude and tenderheartedness. Vivek Murthy posed the question, “What would love do?” I would also invite you to consider how does love move you? And as another wise teacher of mine put it .”Do what you love, and (as importantly) know that you’re loving it.”
“When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.”Ilya Prigogine (Nobel Prize-winning chemist)
Sense your feet, soften your jaw, and allow the breath.
With love and gratitude for your presence on this earth,
Karen Roeper
Founder Essential Motion