This morning I had a conversation with my co-workers about some challenging circumstances that I’m in the midst of. With my description, I imagined I painted a storm cloud — complete with rumbling thunder and generally full of doom. And then I added that as dreadful as it feels, in the background is a sense that it’s a good, necessary process. In large part, I have Pema Chödrön to thank for helping to condition my mind to hold pain and terrible shit-storms of life within a view of path and awakening. In this video, she begins by relaying a most helpful bit of encouragement: Don’t lose heart. For more than a decade I’ve been turning to Pema Chödrön books in times of strife just to get a bit of encouragement like that; just to be reminded that this very moment — whatever the texture — is the process of awakening in living color. She always says: “Feel it.” And doing so allows us to know the reality of life on earth, and develop empathy for …