WEBVTT

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<v Speaker 1>Us studios. Close your eyes if it feels safe to

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<v Speaker 1>do so, and let your body settle into the surface

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<v Speaker 1>beneath you. There is nothing to fix right now, nothing

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<v Speaker 1>to perform, nothing to earn, Just as breadth and the

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<v Speaker 1>next one in the soft space that opens between them.

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<v Speaker 1>Let yourself arrive slowly into this small room of attention

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<v Speaker 1>you have made for yourself. You do not have to

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<v Speaker 1>be anywhere else. You do not have to be anyone

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<v Speaker 1>else for these next few minutes. The only task is

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<v Speaker 1>to be here, to let the breath move through you,

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<v Speaker 1>the way it has been moving through you since the

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<v Speaker 1>moment you were born, even on the days you forgot

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<v Speaker 1>it was there, even on the nights it was the

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<v Speaker 1>only companion you had. Let the breath come in through

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<v Speaker 1>your nose, slowly, gently, Let it leave your body through

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<v Speaker 1>your mouth or through your nose. It does not matter which.

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<v Speaker 1>What matters is that you let it come and go

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<v Speaker 1>without trying to control it. You are not doing the breath.

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<v Speaker 1>The breath is happening, and you are simply the place

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<v Speaker 1>where it is happening. The door does not check. The

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<v Speaker 1>door does not ask what you have accomplished, or how

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<v Speaker 1>many tasks remain. The door simply says, come in, Come

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<v Speaker 1>in and sit down. There is nothing you owe me,

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<v Speaker 1>there is nothing you have to perform. You have been

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<v Speaker 1>carrying a great deal, not only the visible weight of

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<v Speaker 1>tasks and worries, dead lines and decisions, but also the

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<v Speaker 1>invisible weight of being the one who seems to hold

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<v Speaker 1>it together, the one who notices, the one who remembers.

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<v Speaker 1>Somewhere along the way, you began to believe that holding

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<v Speaker 1>yourself was your job alone, that asking for help was

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<v Speaker 1>a sign of failure, that needing something from another person

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<v Speaker 1>meant you were not yet enough. And so you learned

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<v Speaker 1>to grip, to tighten, to keep going on, the kind

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<v Speaker 1>of strength that does not get to rest. You became

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<v Speaker 1>very good at being the strong one. You became so

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<v Speaker 1>good at it that no one thought to ask if

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<v Speaker 1>you were tired, and you stopped asking yourself. I want

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<v Speaker 1>you to notice for a moment how heavy that has been,

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<v Speaker 1>Not to dwell on it, not to make a story

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<v Speaker 1>out of it, just to acknowledge quietly that you have

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<v Speaker 1>been carrying more than one person was ever meant to

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<v Speaker 1>carry alone, and that the carrying, however steady, however dignified,

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<v Speaker 1>has cost you something. Maybe sleep, maybe softness, maybe the

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<v Speaker 1>kind of spontaneous joy that does not arrive when the

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<v Speaker 1>shoulders are always up around the ears. You can choose

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<v Speaker 1>rest while there's still more to do. You can let

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<v Speaker 1>the to do list wait, and the world will still

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<v Speaker 1>be there when you return. Nothing falls apart in the

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<v Speaker 1>hours you set aside. In fact, some things quietly fall

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<v Speaker 1>into place. But the truth, the quiet truth, the one

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<v Speaker 1>that lives beneath all the louder stories, is that you

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<v Speaker 1>are not actually holding yourself alone. You never were. The

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<v Speaker 1>ground holds you when you cannot stand. The breath holds

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<v Speaker 1>you when you forget to remember it. The people who

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<v Speaker 1>love you hold you in ways you do not always see,

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<v Speaker 1>because love, real love, does not announce. It shows up

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<v Speaker 1>in small things, in a text that arrives at the

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<v Speaker 1>right moment, in a hand on your shoulder that says

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<v Speaker 1>nothing and says everything, in the quiet way someone leaves

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<v Speaker 1>a cup of tea on your desk without being asked.

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<v Speaker 1>You are held by the morning that keeps arriving, even

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<v Speaker 1>on the days you wish it would not. You are

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<v Speaker 1>held by the body that keeps breathing for you while

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<v Speaker 1>you sleep, even when your mind is busy. Rehearsing tomorrow's worries,

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<v Speaker 1>even when it feels like the smallest, most fragile thing

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<v Speaker 1>in you. There is something holding the stars in their orbits,

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<v Speaker 1>and the same something is holding you in yours. You

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<v Speaker 1>do not have to understand it. You do not have

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<v Speaker 1>to name it. You only have to let yourself be

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<v Speaker 1>held by it, the way a child is held by

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<v Speaker 1>a parent who has been holding children for years and

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<v Speaker 1>knows exactly how to do it without thinking. That knows

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<v Speaker 1>the winter is not a failure of summer. The earth

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<v Speaker 1>understands this rhythm without trying. It does not struggle against

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<v Speaker 1>the dark. It does not apologize for the rest. It

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<v Speaker 1>simply rests and trusts that the green will come again.

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<v Speaker 1>Noticed if you can the places in your body where

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<v Speaker 1>you are gripping right now, maybe your jaw slightly clenched,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe your shoulders lifted toward your ears, Maybe the soft

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<v Speaker 1>place behind your sternum where worry lives like a small

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<v Speaker 1>animal curled up trying to keep warm. You do not

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<v Speaker 1>have to release them all at once. You only have

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<v Speaker 1>to notice them, to say hell to them, to acknowledge

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<v Speaker 1>that they have been working hard for you, even when

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<v Speaker 1>you did not thank them. Place a hand, if it

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<v Speaker 1>feels right, on one of those places, on your chest,

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<v Speaker 1>on your shoulder, on your belly. Let the warmth of

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<v Speaker 1>your own hand remind you that you are not as

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<v Speaker 1>alone as you have been telling yourself. Your hand on

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<v Speaker 1>your own body is a small act of being held.

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<v Speaker 1>It is the body saying to itself, I see, I

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<v Speaker 1>am here. You do not have to do this alone.

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<v Speaker 1>Imagine for a moment that something larger than your own

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<v Speaker 1>effort is supporting you. Not a person necessarily, not a promise,

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<v Speaker 1>just a quiet sense of being met by life itself,

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<v Speaker 1>the way a hammock meets the body, the way a

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<v Speaker 1>pillow meets the head, the way silence meets grief when

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<v Speaker 1>there are no more words to say, the way the

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<v Speaker 1>ocean meets the shore again and again, without ever seeming

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<v Speaker 1>to tire of it. You are allowed to be held.

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<v Speaker 1>You are allowed to be the one who rests, who

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<v Speaker 1>is carried, who is met. This is not weakness, This

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<v Speaker 1>is not giving up. This is the deep, slow remembering

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<v Speaker 1>that you were never meant to carry everything by yourself,

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<v Speaker 1>that the universe, in its quiet way, has been holding

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<v Speaker 1>you all along, even on the days it did not

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<v Speaker 1>feel like it, especially on the days it did not

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<v Speaker 1>feel like it. The held places in your life are

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<v Speaker 1>not always obvious. You might not look like big gestures

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<v Speaker 1>or loud declarations. They might look like the way sunlight

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<v Speaker 1>falls through a window without trying, The way a song

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<v Speaker 1>you forgot you loved comes on the radio, The way

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<v Speaker 1>a stranger smiles at you on the street for no

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<v Speaker 1>reason at all, The way you wake up again and again,

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<v Speaker 1>still here, still trying, still reaching towards something soft. Let

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<v Speaker 1>yourself be reached right now. Let this moment reach you,

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<v Speaker 1>Let the words reach you, Let the silence after the

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<v Speaker 1>words reach you. You do not have to reach back.

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<v Speaker 1>You do not have to earn any of this. You

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<v Speaker 1>only have to be willing to be met by it.

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<v Speaker 1>There is a particular kind of rest that only comes

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<v Speaker 1>when we feel safe, when we let our guard down,

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<v Speaker 1>when we are with someone who does not need us

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<v Speaker 1>to be anything. That kind of rest is precious. Let

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<v Speaker 1>your breath get a little softer, now, a little longer

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<v Speaker 1>on the exhale. Imagine each exhale as a small release

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<v Speaker 1>not of a problem, but of the grip on the problem.

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<v Speaker 1>You are not solving anything right now, You are only

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<v Speaker 1>letting yourself be where you already are, and that is enough.

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<v Speaker 1>That is more than enough. Think of someone real or

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<v Speaker 1>imagined who has ever held you. A grandmother, perhaps, a

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<v Speaker 1>friend from a long time ago, a teacher who believed

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<v Speaker 1>in you before you believed in yourself, a partner, a

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<v Speaker 1>stranger on a train who said the exact thing you

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<v Speaker 1>needed to hear without knowing they were saying it. You

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<v Speaker 1>only have to let the feeling of being held be

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<v Speaker 1>real for a few breaths. Notice what happens in your

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<v Speaker 1>body when you allow that. Notice if something softens, Notice

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<v Speaker 1>if your jaw unclenches just a little. Notice if your

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<v Speaker 1>shoulders drop even a millimeter. Notice if something loosens, even

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<v Speaker 1>just for a moment. That softening is not you letting

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<v Speaker 1>go of strength. It is you finding a different kind

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<v Speaker 1>of strength, the kind that comes from rest, the kind

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<v Speaker 1>that comes from being met, the kind that does not

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<v Speaker 1>have to grip because it trusts the ground beneath it.

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<v Speaker 1>Some of us have been told, in small ways and

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<v Speaker 1>in large ones, that we do not deserve softness, That

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<v Speaker 1>softness is something we have to earn, That we have

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<v Speaker 1>to be productive, to be valuable and useful, to be

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<v Speaker 1>lovable and if no one comes to mind, if you

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<v Speaker 1>cannot think of any one who has held you, if

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<v Speaker 1>your life has been more holding than being held, then

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<v Speaker 1>let me be that for you. For these few minutes

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<v Speaker 1>you are held, You have been seen, you have not

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<v Speaker 1>been forgotten. Whatever you are carrying, you do not have

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<v Speaker 1>to carry it alone. In this moment, in this breath,

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<v Speaker 1>in this small room we have made together with our attention,

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<v Speaker 1>we have to become the ones who hold ourselves, not

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<v Speaker 1>because no one else will, but because we finally understand

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<v Speaker 1>that we are worth holding, that we always were. You

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<v Speaker 1>are worth holding even now, even here, even on the

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<v Speaker 1>days you have forgotten how to ask, you are not

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<v Speaker 1>taking from them when you rest. You are giving them

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<v Speaker 1>more of yourself in the long run, by not running

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<v Speaker 1>yourself down. We have been taught that the most generous

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<v Speaker 1>thing is to keep giving, even when we are empty.

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<v Speaker 1>You are going to return to your day. Soon, the

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<v Speaker 1>phone will buzz again, the list will still be there.

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<v Speaker 1>The world will ask its questions, but you do not

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<v Speaker 1>have to answer them. From that old place of grieping

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<v Speaker 1>and going alone, you can carry with you this quiet

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<v Speaker 1>understanding that you are held, that you have always been held,

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<v Speaker 1>that you are not and have never been doing this

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<v Speaker 1>life by yourself. And if you forget, as you will,

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<v Speaker 1>as everyone does, you can always come back here, to

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<v Speaker 1>your breath, to the silence between the breaths, to the

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<v Speaker 1>truth that you are allowed to be met, to be

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<v Speaker 1>carried to rest in something larger than your own effort.

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<v Speaker 1>You can come back here any time. This place does

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<v Speaker 1>not close, this understand does not expire. So here is

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<v Speaker 1>my invitation to you this week. Welcome rest. Don't push

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<v Speaker 1>it to the bottom of the list, don't perform it

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<v Speaker 1>for anyone. Just practice letting it in practice, trusting that

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<v Speaker 1>you can stop and still behold. Take one more breath

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<v Speaker 1>with me, long and slow, let it fill you all

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<v Speaker 1>the way down to your belly, and let it leave

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<v Speaker 1>your body like a tide going out, leaving you lighter

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<v Speaker 1>than you were a few minutes ago, Lighter and also

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<v Speaker 1>more health Lighter and also more rooted in something quiet

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<v Speaker 1>and true. You are ready. Gently open your eyes, move slowly,

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<v Speaker 1>bring this with you. You are held, you have always

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<v Speaker 1>been held.