Falling Isn’t the Only Way to Feel Alive
It all begins with an idea.
A variation of a really old joke:
A man falls from the top of a skyscraper and as he falls, he hears someone call out from a window, “YOU OK?” Yells back: “SO FAR SO GOOD!”
Let’s face it, we are all hurtling toward our inevitable end. And isn’t that the a response we too often offer – as the wind hits our face: So far so good? Really? And despite what skydivers may tell you, falling isn’t the only way to feel alive. (But it can be a lightning bolt lesson!)
Here’s another way, from the poet, Mary Oliver:
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
What would it look like if you chose to live this one wild and precious life awakened to all that is? What are you stopping to notice? What’s passing you by as you hold onto that which is certain?
Where are you now, what’s missing, and what’s here?
We Think That Real Change and Transformation Require Work
It all begins with an idea.
We hear things like, they did a lot of work on themselves. It’s going to take hard work.
Images of years spent meditating in unheated ashrams fill our minds, and other impractical practices beyond our reach…
What if I tell you we first have to make you stop working so hard at “it”?
What if it’s an adventure to unknow what we think we know, and to bring into view the unseen?
What if laughter’s the tool to defang our fears?
What if tears are the rain for the seeds within?
What if we learn to harness ourselves to the energies of the universe so we are carried with grace and ease?
What if transformation takes place while we’re busy filling the cranny between breaths with wonder and love?
We Have a Choice Even When We Feel We Don’t
It all begins with an idea.
Who hasn’t been in a tough situation, so tough we weren’t sure we could survive? Between a rock and a hard place. Fight or flight. And even flight may not be an option. Freeze, sure, but you’re as angry with yourself as you are with the injustice, the shattered expectations, the betrayal.
Still there are people to blame and humiliation to swallow. We look as others pass us by, on the fast lane to somewhere. Add self-pity and a dose of regret. So what choice do we have?
When stuck in this misery, we often hear: Don’t be upset. Tomorrow will be better! Let’s go get ice cream and make you forget.
No? That won’t work?
How about this: You’re lucky you’re not dead, stupid! You messed up, now get up, dust it off, and soldier on!
Not that either? Not mom or dad? What then?
When our parents messed up, when they said the wrong thing, when they blamed us and hurt us, or just plain neglected us, innately we knew what a good parent – our own version of the divine parent - would do.
We knew the difference between the kinds of love we got and the love we craved to feel safe and thrive. The difference between having to be the child our parents wanted us to be and the sweet, messy essence of who we were. We looked in the mirror our parents held up and believed that we were not who we were supposed to be, lacking, damaged. Carefully, sadly, we put away our “imaginary” parent along with the perfectly imperfect child, so that we could be the version that best fit the family mold.
And what about this rocky choiceless place we were talking about? What if you were able to unearth that divine parent within you that loves you unconditionally, that forgives what couldn’t be helped and accepts all mistakes as gifts?
That parent that embraces the sweet essence that is you and makes you feel perfectly at home. Call it your soul. Powering you – with acceptance, curiosity, and compassion – to find a path between that rock and that hard place...that seem to fade rather mysteriously with every step you take.