Experiencing tragedy and suffering doesn’t change everyone—even though it should. That’s what suffering is designed to do. We face down cancer; suffer heartbreaking loss; recover from catastrophes of all kinds.
Why do some of us change as a result of suffering and some of us don’t? What creates revolutions?
How do we fall back asleep? We slip from our devotion. We become spiritually lazy. We have to keep looking into the nature of our lives; our reality. In order for suffering to create transformation, we’ve got to investigate it—get to know it. Why did it occur? What exacerbated it? What dissolves it? The rewards of that soul-searching lead to joy.
. . . . .
When Grace looks to the future that she wants, a future born of suffering and awakening to joy, she seizes the moment and she makes a vow. And this is how we avoid falling back asleep after a wake-up call. We vow to live differently.
And every vow requires devotion.
We must make the vow to a beautiful ideal and devote our lives to it. Like we do at births, weddings, and on death beds: we stand in love, we look ahead, and we promise to make good on the vision.
This is a vividly sacred time to avow to new life. We have to come into ceremony with this global suffering. Approach it as a sacred passage to higher consciousness, submit our fears and vow to love. And vows made in the eye of a storm and at major thresholds are imbued with Divine Power. This is where we commit to Life and carry it out. The ceremony is underway—we just need to fully show up.
As anyone who’s gone through a dark night of the soul knows, dawn can be as magnificent as the darkness was brutal. I’m banking on it. We can’t just “let” crisis change us… we’ve got to make it change us.
There are so many ways to go backwards, but only one way forward.
Keep going…
With Love,
Danielle
Danielle LaPorte is an invited member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100, a group who, in Oprah Winfrey’s words, “is uniquely connecting the world together with a spiritual energy that matters.” She is author of White Hot Truth: Clarity for keeping it real on your spiritual path—from one seeker to another. The Fire Starter Sessions, and The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul—the book that has been translated into 8 languages, evolved into a yearly day planner system, a top 10 iTunes app, and an international workshop program with licensed facilitators in 15 countries. Named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes, millions of visitors go to DanielleLaPorte.com every month for her daily #Truthbombs and what’s been called “the best place online for kickass spirituality.” A speaker, a poet, a painter, and a former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, Entrepreneur Magazine calls Danielle, “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” Her charities of choice are Eve Ensler’s VDay: a global movement to end violence against women and girls, and charity: water, setting out to bring safe drinking water to everyone in the world. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her favourite philosopher, her son. You can find her @daniellelaporte and just about everywhere on social media.
