To Care, To Tend, To Hold Sacred

I’ve been honoring the invitation for hibernation this winter. The pull was strong and it would have been foolish to do otherwise. My body needed rest. My nervous system needed time to untangle patterns that weren’t serving me. In the quiet I did get to experience immense gratitude for the work I have the privilege to do, and for each of you who share your hearts and time and presence with me. 


One of the things that has arisen out of this time of internal rest and contemplation is an invitation for CARE. This is my word for the New Year. I don’t set New Year resolutions. They don’t fit well with my energy type. I am learning to embrace that I am multi-variate, that I have to listen for strong gut centered YES energy before I reply to invitations. And, even when I get a strong Yes, what I take on may be for a season only and not fit in the cultural standard of a 5- or 10- year plan. In fact, the very words, 5-year plan send a shudder through my being. However, I do take time to get quiet in the days surrounding the Winter Solstice and New Year; and I listen for the energy to take form as a word that is asking for my attention. This year, it is CARE. 

Care: 

1: To do the things that are needed to help or protect (someone) or to keep (something) in good condition: to care for (someone or something)

2. To do (something that requires attention)

3. To feel interest in something

4. To feel affection for someone or something

5. To look after (someone or something)

6. To like or enjoy or feel affection for (someone or something)
 

Tend is a powerful synonym for care. 

Tend: To give your attention to and take care of (something or someone)

Tending invites the energy of intention. Intention is to tend to or care on purpose!
 

When we feel a profound interest in someone or something, a deep affection, and we like and enjoy one another; caring is deeply rooted in dignity. Our own being, our work, our communities, our relationships become places for curiosity, for affection, for listening and for caring or tending to the needs of one another in beautiful reciprocity. 


I would summarize these definitions as “to hold sacred.” To what is sacred, we give our full attention. We tend, we nourish, we love, we admire, and we protect. We pause in full admiration and we honor the immense power and gifts inherent in what is sacred. There is a natural reciprocity in the sacred; life moving like an infinity symbol from our center to the life force within whatever we stand before, and back again.


It is a beautiful gift for me to explore “care” and hold this gentle, sacred energy. As a person with a natural inclination toward care-taking and healing, one of my worth-monsters and areas that has needed healing and growth has been the dysfunctional side of care. Care based on hierarchy: that I can presume to know what something or someone else needs and can then turn my very ‘caring’ attention to help. Caring is in quotes here because this is not the energy of the sacred, of dignity and of reciprocity. It is rooted in perfectionism, in lack of true self-worth, and in a false sense of self. It is depleting. It is feeding cookies to my insatiable worth-monster. It is messy. And it is harmful. 
 

Tending is by nature an act of interdependence. It honors the dignity of every living thing and does not assume a mantle of hierarchy. It blooms from and nourishes WORTH, as a core truth, independent of peripheral action or accomplishment. Care and tending invite and celebrate relationship, profound listening, curiosity and exploration. To know ‘care’ as a fundamental energy of life itself, a flow of energy that nurtures and protects and holds deep affection for all of life… that is a different energy indeed. 

 

Tending on purpose allows me to gently hold my actions and the places I give my attention, time, and energy to, with curiosity and with the invitation to explore. The inquiry becomes: what is sacred, what is needed to protect and honor the sacred, what do I hold deep affection for, what do I choose to look after, what is inviting my care? And, then, I listen.The answers will arise. Maybe I will know what needs my attention and how to give it; maybe I will know when and where to ask for help and guidance.

 

With CARE as an intentional energy this year, I am asking, with rapt attention, affection and intention: 

 

  • How am I tending to this body which I inhabit? 

  • How am I tending to my relationships (personal and larger community)? 

  • How am I tending to my home (the roof over my own head and this incredible earth we call home)? 

  • How am I tending to my creative expression(s)? 

  • How am I tending to my passions? 

  • How am I tending to my work with patients? 

  • How am I tending to my business and my finances? 



I invite this really nurturing practice of listening for the energy that is arising for you this year, the energy that is asking for your attention, and listening for the word that best takes the form for that energy. And, perhaps invite care in to the process, tending to what interests you, to what you love, to what you hold sacred. 

 

I would love to hear what your word is for the year and what tending it invites. 
 

I look forward to the connections we will have and the moments of sacred togetherness in the year to come. 

 

With love, 

Dr. Amy

Amy Chadwick