Pressure

David Bowie was an amazing musician. One of his haunting songs done in collaboration with Freddie Mercury and Queen was named "Under Pressure."

"Pressure, pushing down on me pressing down on you, no man asks for pressure, that burns a building down, splits a family in two, puts people on streets."

It is such an interesting concept that impacts all of our lives. There are amazing points when a pressure point provide us with an opportunity to shine with our voice. People react to the moment in totally different ways.

I am a sports fan and this is where the world really sees pressure in action. There are athletes in sport who come to moments when they must produce a result at the highest level. Many people shy away from this moment and don't want to be in the light. But there is a group who absolutely love this time. They shine brighter and you just know something beyond belief is going to happen. They rise to the occasion and at that very point they are magnificent. Michael Jordon, one of the best basketball players of all time, said in the last two minutes of a close game he wanted the ball. He wanted to carry the onus of winning on his back.

I was a tennis pro for a number of years so I follow professional tennis. We love to watch the Grand Slam tournaments, which are the four most important gatherings of the best. We will watch over and over again as one of the pros will be winning the match easily - until the last game to win it. Closing out a big match is a masterpiece in mental pressure. Arms tighten up and people choke right before our eyes.

This ties into an earlier blog on how we react when being a hero is one of the choices. These are the men and women who in 2001 ran to the twin towers as the fires burned, not away from the danger..

But I submit this occurs all the time and is not always so evident. My father passed away on a Tuesday night and it was a very tough night in the hospital working with the doctors. There were phone calls to my brother and sister determining end of life choices before we finally lost him. The next night I was scheduled to lead a church service including the meditation. I think back to that and in my mind there was no hesitation that my job on Wednesday was to hold sacred space and in doing so I would be honoring my father. It was a night of pressure for many reasons.

I believe we all have moments like that; in that very moment there is a huge expansion of spirit and the Divine expands within us. We connect in a deeper way with our light.

I think this can range from having frank talks with family members, with hearing challenging medical decisions, with making stands in our life on principle, and for taking a stand for an opinion when the majority are on the other side of the opinion.

We all have been in this place; we all will be in this place again. I always find myself taking a breath and asking in prayer that I show up with "my voice and God's words!" It took a long time to enter situations like this and no I have no earthly idea what to say - but my partner does. In the end, if I surrender to that it works. Under pressure!