Okay, it’s true. I cried in Carnegie Hall. You listen to Peter, Paul and Mary sing Where Have All the Flowers Gone during the holidays with a few thousand people from all around the world singing along and it might stir up some emotions as well.  Add a world-class choir (with my friend, Marcela, in it) filling the hall with angelic music. I know it all may sound a bit silly, but let me say more.

In these days of pessimism and people feeling separate from their neighbors, much less other nations, hearing PP&M sing from their hearts about the need to move past war and hatred, somehow you could feel in the hall the great desire for oneness. But more importantly, the hall was actually filled with it, this common sense of a shared experience, a shared destiny.

Mary represented this idea well in one of her songs about walls coming down. The refrain was "If there is any hope for love at all, some walls must fall." So in this holiday time, I wish for each of you, to be able to love others, but most importantly to love yourself. It means some walls must fall. I speak here of the walls within you that developed at some forgotten time, that perceive the world as unsafe, regardless of the fact that in this moment in this chair where you sit, most likely you are safe. With time these walls give rise to armor around the heart, supposedly to keep pain out, but in truth locking pain in.

This armor creates a deep sense of aloneness and loneliness. This can mean in your relationships with your teenagers, your boss, your partner or friend, or even the counterperson in the local store.

So, my dear fellow journeyers during these times of great change, as best you can, consider seeing the depth of separation you feel, and letting it go, if even for this one tender moment. Take a breath, lower your shoulders, and take a break from holding the fortress gates closed protecting the city called "you". It takes a lot of energy to keep them closed. You deserve a rest. This break wont be given by some unknown person you are waiting for in some fantasy who will "save" you from your pain. This lifetime is short. Your break is waiting for you now, this moment.

For loving help in letting go of this habit of "self-protection" and discovering who you are beyond fear, explore this site (See Calendar in the link bar) for when and where we will be offering the chance to learn this simple yet life-saving skill.

For now, I wish you the greatest of holidays and a most rewarding inner peace.

PS: One thing that made the evening so special was sharing it with dear friends. Marcela was on stage in the choir; James, my best buddy; and Helene who many of you know, my senoir associate and dear friend. Thanks for the fun!