There have been innumerable Gandhis, Dalai Lamas, Martin Luther Kings, Ammas, Buddhas, Jesuses, prophets, saints–wise men and women extraordinaires to have walked the Earth, living and spreading that universal message of truth, harmony, love, justice, and compassion. ?Each spoke it in a different language; each lived it in a different way.

And still, there are just as many saints as beggars in the world–hungry, homeless, suffering. ?There are just as many saints as Hitlers, blind with ignorance and hungry with abused power, waging wars against Egypt, Iraq, the Earth, each other, and within. ?In each religion, there are just as many practitioners who justify their actions and beliefs in order to harm another as those who do to help another.

If even one person has realized how to live and be enlightened in this lifetime, devoted to truth and to love, why haven’t we all? ?If the message is out there (and?in here), why are there still bombs? ?Why are we still suffering?

As human beings, we inherently each have the seed of the universe within, complete with the ability to experience desire, anger, lust, jealousy, love, attachment, pleasure, pain, sorrow, compassion, ill-will, and ignorance.

Let’s examine that last one. Read More

The moment we emerged from our mother’s birth canal and sipped our first sweet breath, we were wounded. ?The very cord that sustained us, fed us, nourished us–the umbilical cord–was cut.

And from that day onwards, we proceeded to live a life of wounds. ?Every moment our mother did not give us her whole heart and her full attention; every moment we were not breastfed when we were hungry (or if we were not breastfed at all), we were wounded.

When it came time to leave home and go to school–when we were forced to sit in a classroom for 6 hours a day and listen to strangers teach us things we didn’t ask to learn, we were wounded.

When we were taught our sexuality is shameful, we were wounded.

When someone laughed at us in a moment of awkwardness or vulnerability, we were wounded. Read More

Sometimes a father wakes at dawn to his crying child and doesn’t want to get out of bed. ?He does it anyways. ?He is committed.

Just as the sun rises across the horizon each and every day, so must we rise from our slumber to feed the children even when it hurts most.

There’s a child inside you. ?A child who has recoiled from every hurt, every disappointment, every heartbreak and back turned against the truth.

This child cries at dawn; cries when you are tired, when you are already broken and downtrodden, in angst and in pain. ?This child cries the tears of every moment you were ever denied the love that is your birthright.

Are you willing to remove the cotton from your ears, life your head from the pillow of comfort and ease, and open to the piercing shriek that beckons you from your slumber?

Can you rise on days when thoughts and doubts spin like a tornado inside you? ?Can you stay clear in your commitment even when the San Francisco fog blurs the hand that’s right in front of you? Read More

At the essence, we wish to create a better world to live in–one that comes from love. ?We want to change the world.

So we become entrepreneurs, activists, artists, musicians, yoga teachers, politicians, local artisans, public figures.

And then we come home at the end of our busy days, exhausted, burnt out, tripping over our feet with the momentum of “there is work to be done!” ?We collapse.

What if, out of love for the world, we took responsibility for our own selves first and cultivated that love from within? ?What would it look like to be the change we so dearly wish to make on the world?

I have met leaders who practice their own teachings, who live their own medicine and take what they preach to heart. ?They are successful because they know from their own experience that their work makes a difference, because it has made a difference in their own life.

Teachers like this can walk into the room without speaking a word and I get it:

“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the essence of Self-Marriage. ?This is what it means to live a life where we create from within. ?Create love, create change from within.

Commit to it: Love yourself. ?Love your life. ?Be the change.

It doesn?t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart?s longing.

It doesn?t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive. Read More