Believing in our own goodness – that’s what’s tugging at my heart

Recently I led a women’s retreat in Berkeley called “I’m Coming From A Great Space: Learning to Tend and Befriend the Chaos in Our Lives“.  The room was filled with some great women –“wimmens“, I call us — all of who were on intimate terms with Chaos in Her varied manifestations, and wanting, as I did, to find ways to not only move beyond the tumult but use it as a way to transform our lives for the better.

One phrase that kept coming to me in between the exercises and conversation prompts I had created for the retreat was this: That in the midst of Chaos, our greatest challenge is to believe in our own Goodness. Each time I said these words, the room grew still. In the presence of Truth, there is — among wimmens — nothing else for us to do but stop and honor and be grateful.

This phrase set the course for our interactions; it tugged at everyone’s heart. We asked ourselves why this was true in our own lives, and why it is true in the lives of many wimmens. Then, we set about affirming our Goodness, creating ways that would help us move through whatever our current challenges were with a deeper love, with integrity stability, dignity — and, ultimately, joy.

What tugged at my heart that day was that though we all had this shared experience of doubt, we had all risen beyond it. That push-pull kept us busy, but it also turned us in an instant family. What then tugged at my heart was that we had to leave each other when the retreat was over.

Margaret Wolff is the author of “In Sweet Company: Conversations with extraordinary women about living a spiritual life“