Well, this card certainly rocked my world! As it turns out it did so in a very supportive way.
To start with, these are the lines from the Spirit@Work Cards® accompanying poem that spoke volumes to me:
May I communicate from my Soul.
and
Let me move inward to a loving place,
Where I can let go of fear and fill the voice with love.
I walk the listening path with courage and authenticity.
After really thinking about what the card meant I realized that I haven’t done that with the 500 Word Facebook group that I’m a member of. In reality, I haven’t actually told anyone. (With the exception of two other people.) This group though is important to me and plays a large part in my journey. It’s a group of writers. Very supportive, caring, and authentic writers. And I wasn’t giving that back to them. Because I never shared with them what my book was about. I hinted at it, explained in great detail what the Higher Ground Leadership® program was all about. Spouted about how I was going to write this book as part of my practicum, and all of the good things and expected personal growth that comes with it. I never dug deep down into my Soul and shared exactly what that journey was about. They may have guessed parts of it. A title of Footprints On My Soul would give a group of writers a pretty good guess as to what it was about. I never validated their unspoken inklings. I just danced around with words that told … but not really.
All of that changed on September 9th, the day I drew the card Communication and really searched my Soul as to what this card really meant to me. I had to briefly share the story behind my book with this group of people. I was so scared while I was drafting my Facebook post. I was visibly trembling and so close to tears that I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t crying. I wrote it, edited it a bit, and then read it over again … and again, and again. All together I spent about an hour and a half putting this very courageous and authentic communication from my Soul together.
Then came the really hard part. Hovering over the post button. Hovering between “Press it!”, “Don’t press it.”, and back to “Press it.”
I was terrified of what they would think of me if they found out about my childhood. I wondered whether they would ask me to leave the group. Or perhaps worse, remove me from the group immediately.
The tension of what I was going to do was almost unbearable. I reminded myself that my practicum was to live this journey for 100 days, regardless of how much courage it took. I reminded myself that I wanted to experience every bit of it for two reasons. To free my Soul, and to become a masterful coach so I could coach others to do the same, with a full understanding of what it could take to do so. I pressed post, and shut down my computer. It was done, and I couldn’t take it back.
I was so scared that I didn’t peek at the post until that evening. There were a couple of very encouraging posts. It alleviated some of my fear, but hardly any of the group had commented or pressed like. Why? Had I gone too far?
The next morning the first thing I did was check into Facebook. The suspense of whether my post would be accepted was just too much for me. I had to look under the bed to see if there really was a boogey man under it. It took me more than two hours to answer all of the replies that I received on my post in the twenty-four hours since I had written it. All of the replies to my post were supportive in so many ways. Each one unique to the person replying. They were authentic, heart-felt posts that obviously took a lot of thought and time to put together.
All of this because I drew the card Communication and lived it the only way that I could. As it turns out, it also lined up perfectly with The Castle® Principles. My Facebook post took Courage and Authenticity to write it, and to press the post button. It implemented Service, Truthfulness, Love, and Effectiveness in the way that it was written, with the reader in mind.
This was a very challenging card to play with for four days. I read the accompanying text in the book, and the poem, at least once every day to fortify the strength needed to truly live this card. I won’t be untruthful, I am glad that this card is finished being the main player in my daily life. I don’t regret drawing the card. It did bring an inner peace to my Soul, by supporting me in writing the book and courageously sharing my truth.
Higher Ground Leadership Principles®, The Spirit@Work Cards®, and the Castle Principles® are registered trademarks of the Secretan Center.