Lead with Love: There’s a special place in hell …

Through my non-profit organization, Lead with Love, I’ve had the privilege of teaching yoga and meditation at The Aspen Institute for the last 15 years or so. I’ve always been inspired by The Aspen Idea and the vision of Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke that Aspen is a place where mind, body, and spirit can be nourished and flourish. Living in a place with that kind of intention is powerful. I feel it when I teach those classes out on the lawn at Anderson Park with scholars, speakers, and sponsors co-mingling on their mats in the morning during Ideas Fest or Action Forum. It’s a magical thing, and I love to share the history of The Aspen Idea and do my best to make that visionary intention more than just a hollow marketing slogan.

One year when I was teaching at the Institute, I had the opportunity to meet former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. I’ve met a lot of interesting and inspiring people at The Aspen Institute over the years and hosted my fair share of them at our Lead with Love events and our Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series at the Institute. What surprised me the most about the most famous and accomplished people I’ve met is that they are often the most humble and helpful. What? Could it be true? Famous people who are helpful and humble? Yes, it’s true! It really shocked me, and I realized there are a lot of ways to become accomplished and famous. One way is to have a huge ego and to use it to amass as much attention as possible and to have a thin skin and criticize and demonize “others” and perpetuate separation to feel superior. Another way is to be service-oriented, mission- and value-driven, creative, unstoppable, courageous, and enormously empathetic. Oh, and wickedly smart. 

Madeleine Albright is the latter. She broke a glass ceiling in becoming the first female Secretary of State and helped countless women do the same. When Madame Secretary pulled me aside one evening — yes, she pulled me aside and spoke to me as if I was important even though I felt anything but at the time — and said, “Gina, there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” She looked right in my eyes, offering me her courage, her strength, and her wisdom from a path of perseverance and tenacity that brought her to the highest ranks of government and decision making. I will never forget that. She inspired me with those words and her grit and determination.

I don’t believe in hell as in a fiery place where bad people go when they die, but I do see many people living in hell on Earth right in this moment. I see families ripped apart in our country under the guise of safety and security. I see children starving and people being blown up in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, etc. I know that statistically one out of every three women in the United States and likely globally will experience rape, sexual, or physical assault in their lifetime. I hear from people I work with at CASA of the Ninth about the increase in cases and severity of child abuse and neglect in our district and nationwide. We have created hell on Earth, and we can transform it to heaven on Earth by helping each other and caring for one another. 

We are a society stuck in a tribal state of consciousness, and in this state, we blame others and perpetuate violence. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh says, “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” While I couldn’t personally feel more “separate” from our current administration and their actions, I know I perpetuate suffering by buying into that illusion. I know I waste my precious energy and life force by bringing more negativity into the world being against what is and fighting with reality. What I need to do, what we need to do, is to help each other and care for each other — not because we want to avoid that special place in hell Albright spoke about but because that special place is right here on Earth when we watch people suffer and do nothing to change it.

At Lead with Love, we are focusing on caring for caregivers. In this work, we help those that help others creating a ripple effect of positive change. Can you look in your circle and help one woman to thrive a little bit more? Maybe it’s you and giving more attention to yourself and what you really want? Maybe it’s your mother who is craving some quality time with you without an agenda to fix or change? Maybe your daughter needs you to just be with her and listen? There are millions of women and children suffering in the world right this moment, and there is one of you. What difference can one person make? We can make a world of difference one act of kindness and love at a time.

Gina Murdock is the Founder and Director of Lead with Love, an Aspen-based non-profit organization dedicated to shifting culture from fear to love. Join Lead with Love up at Beyul this summer for a heart-opening retreat Caring for Caregivers, Aug. 10-13. More info at ileadwithlove.org.