Thank you @Denise Morrison for the suggestion to put down the phones and take a pause from mindless scrolling. Who wants to join?

we don’t build physical strength by lifting weights that are easy. we grow by meeting resistance. our inner life works the same way. the difficult conversation, the unexpected setback, the uncertainty, these aren’t interruptions to your path. they are the path. every challenge that appears is inviting you to look at something within yourself. patience. trust. compassion. forgiveness. courage. it’s easy to be peaceful when life is calm. the real question is: who are we when life isn’t? do we react from fear or respond from presence? the pause is where we discover the answer. when you stop fighting what is happening and become curious, your inner world shifts. instead of asking why is this happening to me, you begin asking what is this helping me to grow? that simple change in perspective transforms every obstacle into a teacher. life has an incredible way of presenting exactly the experiences we need, not to punish us but tot strengthen who we are. just as muscles need resistance to grow, your spirit needs moments that as more or you than yesterday. the next time life feel heavy, remember this: you may not be carrying a burden. you may be building the inner strength you’ll one day be grateful for.

The answers are within me.

for a long time, I believed arrogant people were full of themselves. now i see something different. i see arrogance grows from ignorance - not ignorance as an insult, but as a forgetting. a forgetting of who we are beneath titles, opinions, achievements and identities. when we lose the connection to ourselves, fear takes over. fear of not being enough. fear of being wrong. fear of losing control fear and not being seen. arrogance becomes the mask that protects those fears. it creates the illusion of certainty. it needs to be right. it needs to defend. it needs to convince. but all of that is someone who has forgotten the peace and joy that already lives within them. the strange thing is that once fear enters, we stop seeing reality. we only see our projection of it. if i believe people can’t be trusted, that’s what i’ll notice. if i believe the world is against me, i’ll see evidence everywhere. my mind creates a story and then I spend time proving it true. that is why two people can experience the exact same moment and walk away with completely different realities. the pause changes everything. when i pause, the stories end. i remember i don’t have to defend who i am because i already know who i am. from that place, i see people differently. i see that behind anger is pain. behind arrogance is fear. behind certainty is someone longing for safety. and the more i return to myself, the more i feel at peace. that is what i l believe we’re all searching for, not for a different world, but a different way of seeing it. and all it takes to do that is a pause.

Hi all, I’ll be away next week and there will not be a zoom on Monday however we will resume the following week:)