Patricia Pearce

Helping You Be the Change

De-Inventing Yourself

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The essential Self is not something you invent. It is something you are.

Lately the phrase “de-inventing myself” has been rolling around in my mind. It’s a potent phrase for me because I feel as though that’s exactly what I’m doing at this stage in my life.

Over the last many years I have become acutely aware of the identity that I inherited, an invented identity that conformed to societal and familial expectations, but which wasn’t really me.

We all inherit an identity, handed down to us by our ancestors and societies that reflect the beliefs they developed. This inherited, invented identity isn’t ever truly us. It is a sort of pseudo-self we are given and from which we unconsciously live—until we don’t.

There comes a time when the impulse within us to be true to ourselves, to be truly our Self, becomes too insistent. It is like a shoot pushing up through compacted soil that will not be deterred. It will express itself. And in order to do that it must break through the crust of the invented self.

We can try to keep it down. We can try to hold onto who we have thought ourselves to be out of fear. But deep down we know that’s not what we are here for.Continue Reading

Tree Wisdom

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As I listened, I began to sense what the Tree knew.

Last week Kip and I were on vacation in the Adirondacks where we had rented a small cabin next to a fork of the Moose River. Every morning I would get up early, make myself a mug of tea and take my journal down by the river bank to journal and watch the morning mist rise from the water. Most evenings Kip and I would see a beaver swimming up or down the river, and once we saw a mink scurrying along the bank.

During the day we hiked through forests along trails that led to sparkling blue lakes and, finding a log or boulder to sit on, would settle in to have our picnic lunch.

One of the most memorable moments for me, though, was a visit to a small stand of old growth forest, one of the few remaining areas of old growth that had escaped the clear cutting that had taken place throughout the region over a century and a half ago.

In this remaining pocket of old growth forest the energy was noticeably different from the areas that had been reforested. The moment I stepped onto the trail I could feel the presence of the trees that had stood there for hundreds of years—the serenity was palpable.Continue Reading

America’s Healing Crisis

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The US is in a healing crisis, and we each play a part in determining its outcome.

I write and speak a lot about the illusory nature of the egoic mind that perceives all things through a concept called “separateness.” In the mystical experience this idea is revealed to be a fallacy, a trick of the mind. When the veil of illusory separateness is lifted, we see that everything is an interconnected whole. One could say that the mystical state is a united state in which all is seen to be inextricably interwoven and where the separate self we have always thought ourselves to be simply doesn’t exist.

At the dawn of this new millennium, as people all across the globe are increasingly awakening from the trance of the separate self, we suddenly find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic that is accelerating the process by revealing in unmistakable terms the inescapable nature of our interconnectedness.

We are coming to see, thanks to COVID-19, that we must care for our neighbor not simply out of a moral obligation to do so, but out of the recognition that at a fundamental level our neighbor is ourself, and our personal wellbeing is inextricably tied to the wellbeing of all.

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How History Repents

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We have the power to set the future free

This 4th of July was strangely quiet here in Philadelphia. Normally the holiday is a very big deal in this city. People flock to our neighborhood in droves to attend a massive, booming, concert on the Parkway, followed by a spectacular, equally booming, fireworks display over the Art Museum. But because of the pandemic, neither happened this year.

Sitting on my roof deck that afternoon, the quiet made it feel like we were a city and a nation deep in introspection, as indeed we need to be. These last weeks and months have brought to light so much that is crying out for healing in our nation, so many erroneous beliefs that need to be let go, so many injustices that need to be dismantled.

Every year on the 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence is read aloud in front of Independence Hall in Old City Philadelphia—a yearly ritual which I suppose took place virtually this year—and I have to say that despite all the injustices and flaws of our nation, I still believe in the words put forth in that Declaration. Just because they have never been enacted doesn’t minimize for me the importance of the vision they set forth.Continue Reading

The Power of Joy

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Joy is the most transformative power we can imagine.

This past week a message came across my path by White Eagle, a Hopi Elder, who was offering counsel on how to be in these times. She talked about the potential of this time as being a portal for us, and she emphasized the importance of taking care of ourselves, because when we take care of ourselves we are taking care of the whole.

She also talked about the importance of joy, and about joy as an act of resistance in the face of oppression. Here are some of her words:

. . . if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal. . .

When you are taking care of yourselves, you are taking care of everything else. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis; have the eagle aspect from above and see the whole; see more broadly.

There is a social demand in this crisis, but there is also a spiritual demand — the two go hand in hand. . .

Learn about resistance of the indigenous and African peoples; we have always been, and continue to be, exterminated. But we still haven’t stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire, and having fun. Don’t feel guilty about being happy during this difficult time.

You do not help at all being sad and without energy. You help if good things emanate from the Universe now. It is through joy that one resists. Also, when the storm passes, each of you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world.

You need to be well and strong. And for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy, and bright vibration. . .

What world do you want to build for you? For now, this is what you can do — serenity in the storm. Calm down, pray every day. Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day.

Good things emanate; what you emanate now is the most important thing. And sing, dance, resist through art, joy, faith, and love.

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Bringing in the Light

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This is the time for new patterns to become anchored in form.

Last Tuesday morning I was meditating, holding in the energy of Love all that has been happening here in Philadelphia in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, all the anger, the pain, the public outcry for justice, and as I sat I wondered what it would be like to be able to join with other energy workers in Philadelphia to hold this collectively on behalf of our city.

As soon as I was finished meditating I texted my friend Zoana, a gifted energy worker, and asked if she knew of any local groups that are joining together with this intention. She didn’t, but said she would be happy to help organize something.

So we wrote an email that same day letting people know that we would be tuning in three times each day, and we sent it out to energy workers we knew inviting them to join us, and asked them to forward the invitation to others.

Clearing the Way

The next day when we were tuning in, the energy that Zoana and I both sensed coming through felt extremely intense. I wouldn’t describe it as angry. I would describe it as fierce, a Kali energy come to clear out old patterns so that the new can arise.Continue Reading

Of Looting and Love

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Beneath it all, racism is a denial of Love

It’s early Sunday morning and I’m sitting on my roof deck. It’s a beautiful morning, cool, sunny. The flowers in the pots lining the edge of the deck are starting to come into bloom: bright yellows, reds, purples. The birds are singing. A gentle breeze is blowing.

Over Center City Philadelphia, about a mile and a half to the south, a helicopter is hovering, only one. Last night, when I could see the smoke coming from the building the protestors had set on fire, there were half a dozen.

To loot (v): to rob especially on a large scale and usually by violence or corruption.

1619: The first ship bringing human beings abducted from the continent of Africa arrives in Point Comfort, in the colony of Virginia.

Last night an old friend of mine, Tyrone, emailed me from Denver to say he was thinking of me. He’d seen the news coverage from Philadelphia, and he told me and Kip, my husband, to stay put and stay safe.

Tyrone and I first met in high school when mandatory bussing in Denver started. He had to get up hours before dawn to catch the school bus that took him across town so he could get to our white suburban school and integrate it before the first bell rang.Continue Reading

Grief as a Portal for Our Awakening

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Humanity’s only future is that of the awakened mind and open heart.

Yesterday the front page of the New York Times listed the names of 1000 people who have died of COVID-19 and one sentence about each of them. They were only one percent of the 100,000 lives lost so far in the US, and there are no doubt tens of thousands more who have died as a result of this pandemic but who were never diagnosed.

Clara Louise Bennett, 91, Albany, GA, sang her grandchildren a song on the first day of school each year.

Valentina Blackhorse, 28, Kayenta, AZ, aspiring leader in the Navajo Nation.

Merrick Dowson, 67, San Francisco Bay Area, nothing delighted him more than picking up the bill.

Arthur Winthrop Barstow, 93, Hadley, MA, there is not a Louie L’Amour Western he had not read three times.

Ruth Skapinock, 85, Roseville, CA, backyard birds were known to eat from her hand.

I doubt it was coincidental that also yesterday morning, during my journaling time, I found myself weeping profusely. There is nothing happening in my own immediate life that would warrant such intense grief, and I don’t personally know anyone who has died from this pandemic. But the tears were nonetheless streaming down my cheeks, issuing forth from this reservoir of collective sorrow.Continue Reading