The Value of Innocence in an Age of Darkness

Unveil your hidden superpower and find your gifts in challenging times. Embrace innocence as a strength to create a brighter future.

“When we make a pact with ourselves to show up for reality just as it is, reality rewards us by revealing its hidden holiness, its ordinary wonder, its fruitful shadows and radiant wounds.”

Mirabai Starr

I had a secret identity.

It was revealed to me many years ago when I was deep in a transformational leadership training program.

A bootcamp for the soul.

There’s a superpower in each of us that we try to keep hidden.

Something that we’re not yet ready to own, or even to face.

Something mighty that we may need our hero’s journey to unveil.

Mine was innocence.

It doesn’t sound all that powerful at first glance, which may explain why I worked so hard to hide it.

I spent years striving for sophistication and knowledge, desperately trying to cover up what I perceived as a vulnerably and not a strength.

But as I came to see more and more of the dark side of life, I found myself more and more drawn to innocence.

Not as an escape from reality, but as a kind of invisible cloak.

Not as a means of avoiding facts, but as protection from the dark and a portal to deeper truths.

For the past few years, as the shadow side of life began to reveal itself with increasing speed and impact, many of us have found ourselves feeling angry, betrayed, or stunned into silence or submission.

We have been activated to fight, flee or freeze.

It’s easy to become jaded by the horror of what human beings are capable of, and then justify any actions or behaviour based upon the injustice of the real or perceived perpetrators.

I have been on the receiving end of this rage and frustration, and I have sometimes wanted to succumb to it.

But ultimately I know, in my heart of hearts, that using the tools of darkness to fight darkness is unsustainable as well as untenable.

For me, it’s just exhausting.

For everyone, it perpetuates the very energy we’re out to eliminate.

Swallowing the poison destroys us all.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Mahatma Gandhi

We all have reason to be outraged, to hold grudges, to become jaded.

But we can choose to see the opportunities, even the gifts, in these challenging times.

This is what I choose — not because I’ve attained some enlightenment, but because it keeps me sane.

It keeps hope and possibility alive in me.

It makes me want to get out of bed in the morning and find a way to speak to the best in each of us.

Some will hear, some will not, and some cannot.

It’s not my job to predetermine who is who.

It’s my job, my calling, my choice, to shine a light on deeper truths.

Yes, the world is full of darkness, and I am not running from it.

I am choosing to maintain my innocence, my belief in humanity, by not being draw into cynicism or hopelessness.

This is rarely easy and requires constant vigilance.

Giving birth is painful.

Recreating the world as it was meant to be, or can be, is a privilege in which we get to participate, if we choose it.

When I take time to pause and consider my role at this time and in this place, I discover beauty in hidden places, and heroes in plain sight.

I believe that we are each here at this tumultuous time to create what’s next by shining our light, witnessing what’s happening, and creating what’s next.

Not from a place of hatred or revenge, but from love and justice.

We will be the change when we hold onto our values more dearly than we hold our opinions.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Interested in reprogramming your mind for success in any area?

Find out how to work with Michelle HERE.