Spirit Wants to Know You’ve Got Skin in the Game

Well it’s been an interesting two years, hasn’t it! I distinctly remember serving extremely fancy and delicious cocktails to my two favorite patrons of Annette’s Restaurant where I was working on March 13th, 2020 and listening to them laugh about how silly this virus thing was getting. 48 hours later I had been fired (so I could collect unemployment) and was glued to all three screens in my home, getting texts from the man I was in love with asking if he could come stay with me for a little while. As I’ve been taught, fear is never justified, and so instead of freaking out I busted open my well-worn copy of Courage to Change and got to work.

Over the past two years I’ve seen two general trajectories amongst my friends, which can be boiled down to one general choice. When the pandemic hit, did you or did you not pick up your spiritual practices?

For people who did not want to use a spiritual practice or whose spiritual practice became fear and anger, I saw addictions worsen, physical ailments take root in a deep and painful way, relationships crumble and communities collapse, careers singed by burnout, and increasing isolation even in the midst of growing connection on so many online platforms.

For people who had and/or were willing to use a spiritual practice I saw miracles. I saw people get clean from addictions, leave life-suck jobs and begin to create art and music that actually paid, relationships get polished up so sparkly they shined in the 4th dimension, and physical health restored on all levels. I saw compasion bloom and hearts open and forgiveness pour out and Spirit pour in. These people’s faces literally looked brighter and softer and they spoke with great kindness and love in a way they never had before. (You know who you are, friends!).

These were the people who during those first few months of the pandemic dug into therapy, running, walking in the woods, prayer, singing, recovery, meditation, using their altar, or in other words, letting Spirit know they had skin in the game. (Credit to my friend and fantastically wise healer, Amanda McC-O who clued me into what Spirit really wanted from me.) And once these people had upped the ante and put all the chips in the middle, the game got really interesting and Spirit showed up for them big time.

Sidenote: I count myself in both groups. A lot of my life got shined up, but I also went through some hard reckonings and lost community that felt like family and many evenings hid in isolation and fear. But I still came out the other side singing my heart out and singing for Spirit to save my life, I wanted to live that bad. I really, really had skin in the game.

Another way to put this, as my friend and healer Amanda Hovey says, is that the waiting room is closed. What’s happening on the planet right now requires us to be the kind of human who steps up to the plate, who comes in from the waiting room, who makes the sacrifices of time and money to have a lush spiritual practice no matter what. Or as I say to my clients, if you chose to incarnate on the planet right now, you’re not just the lucky winner of the best court-side seats there ever were, you’re literally on the court playing one of the greatest games ever played. As my sponsor says, suit up and show up, Cindy!

So what does it mean today to have skin in the game? It means you’re willing to do the hard thing, whatever your hard thing is. It means you’re willing to look into the dark parts of yourself and flood them with self-love and forgiveness. It means you’re willing to finally let go of whatever it is that’s holding you back; that relationships, that habit, that addiction, that fear.

And the truth is, it’s never too late, it’s always the exact right time to start. Even if the last two years scared the shit out of you and gave you terrible anxiety and you’re a mega-introvert now and your addictions and compulsions are out of control, Spirit is with you, longs for you, loves you even/especially at every rock bottom you’ve ever reached. Spirit will wait as long as She needs for you to stand up, take the first step, and say with great courage, “Yes Spirit, I’ve got skin in the game.”