Mantra Part I – Hold Fast

Dear Friends, 

So often we spend our days ensconced in the what-ifs and negatives of life, allowing the inflammatory words of others to pull us into a vortex of toxicity. We have learned that it is easier to go on the attack, to be judgmental and angry with people rather than to show empathy towards them. But to survive we must change. I’ve begun to do this with the help of the following mantra: Hold fast. Slow yourself down. Unshackle the joy. My hope is that writing about each part of this mantra over the next three week will help you too. 

“Hold fast” is a nautical term that has its origins in the Dutch word “hold vast” or so the internet tells me, and because I love the ocean and water in general, I’m going to go with it. I would live on a boat if I did not get so insanely motion sick. As it is, though, if the water is rough and I am on the boat, the only thing I am holding fast to is the railing as I lose my lunch. But I digress. These words resonate so strongly with me that I have them tattooed on my left forearm. They are the linchpin in my mindfulness practice because they remind me to hold fast to my belief in the love of the Lord. 

We have become content to act from emotion while we stand in the toxic mire of hostility and negativity that permeates our society. But what if instead of holding onto pain, resentment, jealousy, entitlement, anxiety, material possessions, fear, and all the other things that poison us while we cast gratitude aside to rot in the shadow of our despair, we instead hold fast to love? “Love not in the personal sense but love as a state of being or a state of grace… not in being happy but with a tough universal sense of quest and daring and growth?”* Within this love, we hold fast to our God (whoever that is), the quiet moments, and the simple beauty of every day. It is a choice each of us has to make each moment of our lives. Do we stay where we are or do we pivot, moving forward with empathy, to a place where we listen more than we talk? 

So today I ask you, what will you choose to do with this one magical and beautiful life? Will you choose to hold fast to the negative and the material possessions we have been told show us how good we are? Or will you strike out on a different path, one that brings calm, gratitude, and joy to your daily life? 

Grace & Peace,
Jorden

_{*James Baldwin}