Anne Linden Steele

If there are two actions that open and link us to earth and sky, they are kindness and honesty. We arrive with them already in place. As children our gestures and observations become stories that inspire adults.

We know immediately when we are in their flow and when we have left it. We feel it in our body, mind, heart and pursuit of wisdom.

As we account and repair, we are welcomed back into a current that feels buoyant and into a stream that at once feels personal. A specific kind of transparent assurance returns.

Kindness requires daring. It is the second half of the instruction, “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.” Once we have learned to bring kindness to ourselves, we become able to offer it to others. It asks an immense leap into the unknown.

Honesty holds us to the conditions of present reality. As we practice acceptance and exposure, we gain a sense of place among humanity and upon earth. When we step away from honesty, pressures spontaneously arise to irritate us until we find our way back to our particular practice of forthrightness and accountability.

 

Excerpted from Earth as our Ground.

Anne Linden Steele