Summer Solstice: Ego or Egg?

"Aren't we all just fragile eggs hiding behind bubble wrap and bravado?"

~ Manny on Modern Family

 

Ever balanced an egg on its end? On Summer Solstice, when day and night are of equal length, it's possible to do so, if we're very patient and careful. But we can only attain this exquisite balance twice a year.

It's a humbling thought. Can we learn from something better known as breakfast how to create balance in our hectic lives? Can we become as poised as an egg?

Time for another subtle shift: from ego to egg, poison to poise. Here in Caffeine Nation, it might be more challenging to transmute hubris to humus, and take an earth-centered approach to life. The lightest day of the year is an ideal time to contemplate our dark side. To dive deep. Roam the loam. We're still in Mercury retrograde, a pristine moment to dwell in the Aretha Franklin lyric and "re-re-re-re" our lives: respect (literally, to look again), reimagine, remember, reboot…

Whether we're cognizant of it or not, we're all renewable energy beings: living on Earth for a time, becoming cosmic compost, being recycled back into the collective. This midsummer moment can help us create an eggstraordinary state of renewal and joy.

In her book, Living In Gratitude, a 12-month plan for making gratitude the foundation stone of our daily life, cross-cultural anthropologist, teacher and author Angeles Arrien says, of June, "We experience equanimity, or a state of balance, when we are content with the way things are. We are neither striving nor holding back. There is nothing lacking or in excess. This balance, or sense of acceptance, is at the heart of equanimity. It opens us to the experience of gratitude and the sustainable experience of renewal that comes from being in balance."

So compost the coffee and let it be grounds for eggceptional openheartedness, and the fulfillment of your dearest dreams. Step out of the bubble wrap and shine your magnificence on those who seek the light. When you live with wonder and humility, your ego transforms into a good egg — and that makes a satisfying meal for anyone, in every season.

Your Essence is Enough

Today's my birthday, and I gave myself the gift of a phone call to one of my dearest friends back East, Ellie, who is 97.5 years old and, after a hip fracture a year ago, is once again walking up and down the three flights of stairs to her apartment. She is a spiritual beacon for me, and for many: whenever I call, there's sure to be someone else there, basking in the sunlight of her love.

I phoned her yesterday but she wasn't feeling well, and as I hung up, I beseeched Spirit, "She's lived such an exemplary life, and been through the broken hip; why is she still here when she's so ready to go home? Please make her transition easy and full of grace." And the message I received in response, which I shared with her today when she said, "In 2013 I'll be 100!" is that she is still here because she's helping to anchor the Shift of the Ages in this watershed year for humanity.

With her usual humility, she thanked me for my kind words and said she isn't able to do very much these days, but she thinks of me so often. I said that's exactly the point: it's not in the doing, but in the being, that she serves.

Our thoughts come first. Ellie sits in her small comfy home and radiates the love in her heart as she always has, which is why, after nearly a century and with no offspring of her own, she has, as she said to me today, "More friends than I can count." She calls herself lucky; I call her loving. People want and need to be in her energy field.

She is my ultimate role model. I don't know if I will ever attain the level of selfless Love for all that she expresses simply by living her life, but I feel very blessed to be the recipient of this essence. She thanked me for the gift of the call, saying she felt so uplifted, and I said, "You see, we are modeling where humanity is growing: giving and receiving are one in truth. I am so uplifted from talking with you as well!"

This is my birthday gift to you: know that, as you live the Love that you are, you are enough. Radiating the beauty in your soul is all that's required, though it's often a tall order. What we do in the outer world doesn't matter in the end; only Love is real. Your essence is enough.