In the morning journal I do something simple: write down the very first thought that comes alive as I wake — before the day rushes in. This morning, the word that arrived was nurturing.
Here's what I'm sitting with. My swabhava — my default tendency — is biased toward being action-oriented. Get things done. That's the thing I most easily reward, in myself and in the people around me. Doing is what I clap for.
But there's another dimension I think I need to learn, and the image that came with it is Chandra — the moon. Not the sun that does, but the moon that holds, reflects, soothes. The nurturing quality. And the question underneath it has two halves: how do I nurture myself, and how do I nurture the people around me?
This is the dimension my dear sister taught me about. She herself is a great nurturer — it's natural to her the way action is natural to me. And I notice the cost of my default: when you're so oriented to doing, to rewarding the doing, you sometimes miss the other person's perspective. You skip the holding.
So I'm not solving this today. Just sitting with it: how do I develop the nurturing side — how do I become a better nurturer?