<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When I lived in Woodacre I attended Spirit Rock meditation center frequently to meditate and listen to Jack share his amazing stories, guidance and beautiful wisdom.</span><br><div><div>On occasion, I would run into him at the post office, and he would greet me like a friend…….such a blessing…….</div><div><br></div><div>I thought this was particularly synchronistic, arriving in my in-box today since our discussion at “Sutras” on Tuesday included an unpacking of what is pain? What is growth?</div><div>Does the caterpillar suffer in its process to became a butterfly? And how do we hold the “suffering” together as we grow and transform?</div><div><br></div><div>With love and gratitude for our sweet community, </div><div>T</div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div><div class="default-style" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica,arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dear friends, </span></div><div class="default-style" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica,arial,sans-serif; color: #333333;"><div>
<br>A teacher once said, “If you think you can wake up without breaking open, you’re mistaken.”
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Growth is not polite.
<br>Truth is not always gentle.
<br>And transformation often hurts.
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But it hurts like birth hurts.
<br>Like muscles growing hurt.
<br>Like a heart opening wider than it ever has before.
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We don’t heal alone.
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Even when we think we must.
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Almost every great turning in your life involved another human being—someone who listened, someone who stayed, someone who did not turn away when you were afraid.
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We are not meant to carry everything by ourselves.
<br>We are meant to <em>carry one another</em>.
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It doesn’t mean we fix each other.
<br>It means we refuse to abandon one another.
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When you walk through grief and someone sits beside you, you are changed.
<br>When you face uncertainty and someone lights a candle, you are changed.
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This is what community means:
<br>Not agreement.
<br>Not sameness.
<br>But shared courage.
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We are not as strong alone as we are together.
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That is not sentimental.
<br>That is survival.
<br>That is love.
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<br>With metta,
<br>Jack
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