A few weeks ago, I ran into an old colleague. She had previously attended my tarot and intuitive journaling workshop. She told me that a word came to her as she watched me conduct the workshop. The word was softness.
Softness.
It was a word I was allergic to when I was younger. I remember listening to someone talk about how the key to success and achieving what you wanted was by being tough and by not allowing yourself to be soft like a marshmallow.
My old colleague clarified: “The softness I’m talking about isn’t weakness. It’s the opposite of hard-ness.”
And my heart softened to “softness.” I knew that in my old corporate job I had a reputation for being hard. I was a tough cookie, making sure rules were followed, policies enforced or even created so everyone and everything would stay in line. What I also heard over and over was: “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”(Who was that person?)
So I will take softness.
Because in softening, I allow opening and acceptance.
In softening, there is humility and grace.
In softening, there is empathy and compassion.
Because softening reminds me of this quote by the author Iain Thomas, a reminder of how I want to live:
Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”
