The cracked, parched Earth of humanity’s collective consciousness is thirsting for softness, gentleness, and suppleness. We are craving tenderness.

Tenderness is where red swollen pain meets kindness and understanding.

It takes courage to be tender. Tenderness calls us forth to face our fears of rejection, of being blamed or judged, and of not belonging. Tenderness beckons us to hold ourselves with great compassion through the discomfort of facing these fears until the illusion passes and the defenses soften and our hearts open again.

Every time we face our fears and soften through them, we build greater capacity for tenderness. The wells of our hearts fill up with empathy and understanding like rain soaking into brittle Earth. The trickle becomes a stream, and over time we expand our ability to hold the fullness of our being, and we welcome the ocean of feelings to wash through us, restoring our humanness.

For those of us lucky enough to feel tenderness, or to meet a person in touch with it, there is an awakening of true humanity within. That tenderness has the capacity to touch your heart and when it does there’s a slight recoil as your red swollen wound receives the gentle rain.

It’s a process for the parched Earth within to become soft and supple again. Tenderness invites us to set down our swords and our judgments, our opinions and our certainty, if we wish to allow its perfume to permeate us.

Tenderness grounds us in honest Earth and encourages us to admit with humility that we don’t really know another’s journey, and we’re just now awakening to the meaning of our own. When we do this, we step into the mystery together, into the unknown…and we realize our greatest ally is deep listening.

Deep listening is truly what gives spaciousness for tenderness to enter our lives. It’s the willingness to be completely present with your own heart open so wide that you could almost be the one to whom you are listening. Of course, that deep listening begins with our own selves, and as we meet what we find in those personal shadows with tenderness, we become the fertile soil in which tenderness can thrive for others.

When tenderness takes root in our beings, a delicate and beautiful flower blooms to light the way. It’s name is Love.