“When it comes time to do your own life, you either perpetuate your childhood or you stand on it and finally kick it out from under.”

-- Rosellen Brown

Dear Friends,

My mentor, Eve Bernshaw, often uses the term ‘emotional maturity’ as a marker of personal empowerment. And when I listened to Barack Obama’s inaugural address, I heard in his words a call for citizens of the U.S. (and really, of the world), to find emotional maturity. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to face the hard realities at this time and to call on our individual strength and power to build a better life.

Since Eve introduced me to this phrase, it has resurfaced often in my awareness. It reminds me that I can choose a higher road, a more noble response to whatever is happening at the moment.

It helps me detach from the part of me who’s wallowing in ‘poor me’ because something isn’t going the way I want. Or the part of me who wants to stay comfortable rather stretch by moving into unfamiliar territory.

When I step into emotional maturity in a situation, I feel my strength and my wisdom. It’s all about discernment. Do I listen to my ego or my soul? The distinction has always been crystal clear, if I’m willing to ask myself this question.

So many of us don’t give ourselves enough credit. We choose to obsess about our faults or hardships rather than step up to a bigger picture of ourselves.

On my vision board for this year, I pasted the words: Just who will you be? I don’t know at this point -- in fact, I’ll never know because who I am continues to grow and unfold new potentials. But I do know this, and I commit to you now – I’m going to be more emotionally mature this year. Yes, I can.

~ Patrice

“I am proposing that we reconceive the dream. That we consider what would happen if security were not the point of our existence. That we find freedom, aliveness, and power not from what contains, locates, or protects us but from what dissolves, reveals, and expands us.”

-- Eve Ensler

AND I want to let you know:
Jamie Walters, the founder of Ivy Sea, will be offering a tele-class: Embodying the Divine Feminine for Creativity, Intuition, Inspiration & Joy on Wednesday, January 28th from 5:30 - 6:45 P.M. Eastern time.
If, like me, you’re unable to listen at that time, you can register for the program and then listen to a recorded version. Go here for details on what Jamie will cover in this tele-class.

I hope to share some of Jamie’s insights in future issues.

Blessings to you all,
~ P