Dear Collective,

Last night I sat on the rocks over the water in Boothbay watching the sunset with Lara and Morgan. The colors were in continuous evolution towards richness and potency as the setting approached. We mused over the past year, an intense period of hyper-growth for each of us, and reflected on some of the things we learned: We learned what it means to show up and lead from our hearts in a culture monopolized by the mind. We experimented with many new ideas- meeting both failure and brilliance- and the world still goes on. I used to detest conflict and difficult conversations and now swim freely in that territory. I feel still and whole even when I don’t meet everybody’s needs, when I make mistakes, when I receive criticism. We learned that we do have the capacity to hold it all, the ugly and the beautiful. 

My friend Therese coined the term, “begendings,” to give language to that undefined moment when the simultaneous ending of one thing gives birth to the next. The pause at the end of the exhale…is the beginning of the inhalation already in process. There is no actual separation between beginning and ending, they are simply two ways of seeing the same thing. 

So here we are in a “begending” moment. I’m going to sign off for the month of August to give reverence to this “begending”… to allow for a pause that honors the endings as I simultaneously feel the birth of the next beginning quickening inside. Today will be our last newsletter and weekly meeting until September. Pandemic allowing, we will gather outside at my house towards the end of the September to honor the next beginning in person and share the evolving vision of Good Medicine. 

Last night, Lara, Morgan and I picked oracle cards from a deck, aptly called “Sacred Rebels” just as we had done before our opening dinner at Good Medicine last June 2019. Against the odds, they both picked the same card: Faith in the Process. May we all surrender to the notion that there is something bigger going on that we can’t see right now. May we hold onto faith, rather than fear, as each of us individually and as a community embrace this next phase unfolding. It is through complete surrender that we become the most empowered.

Love always, 
Liz