Sometimes we can spend more energy in the surprise and/or despair that life has gone pear shaped than we do in bringing things back on track. Life is always going pear shaped in one way or another, yet we seem surprised when it does!
Even though there is so much learning to be had in the sludge of the lake (look at where the lotus blooms) we still try and avoid it - when in fact, what is called for is to roll up our sleeves and get to work. For when need meets intent meets grace that the magic really happens.... There are some lines from 'The Invitation' by Oriah Mountain Dreamer that really resonate with this potential place of stuckness in face of problems: I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes.” I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I also found this, which sums it up perfectly : Perhaps if we were to rename and redefine the shadow archetype as “teacher”, we would find the motivation and courage to face what is in the darkness of our collective basement. And learn. Children are naturally curious and have a sense of awe and wonder at the world. It is beautiful to hang out with little people - who remind us to look at the world like we used to, to explore, be curious and to wonder. Yet, there are many messages in society that try and still our curiosity (and succeeds dramatically as we get older!). For instance, Saint Augustine wrote in Confessions, AD 397, that in the eons before creating heaven and earth, God "fashioned hell for the inquisitive"!
John Clarke, in Paroemiologia, 1639 suggested that "He that pryeth into every cloud may be struck with a thunderbolt". In Don Juan, Lord Byron called curiosity "that low vice". And, of course, we have the proverb ‘curiosity killed the cat’ which speaks volumes about the dance between curiosity and instinct. How is your own internal scale of awe and wonder, magic and curiosity? Where would you put yourself on the scale of 0 (closed to it) and 10 (completely open to it)? Once you've pondered that, read some of the stronger calls to being open to wonder: “I believe the most central function of the brain is to allow us a sense of wonder, which transforms itself into curiosity and awe. Whenever we learn, we are confronted by the enormity of what we still don’t know. This humbles us, but also challenges us to ask questions and to discover new truths, which would benefit all of humanity,” Clavier. Here's what the biologist Lewis Wolpert suggests: “Try many things; do what makes your heart leap; challenge expectation; cherchez le paradox; be sloppy so that something unexpected happens, but not so sloppy that you can't tell what happened; never try to solve a problem until you can guess the answer; seek simplicity; seek beauty.” "The most beautiful experience in the world is the experience of the mysterious." Albert Einstein. "One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests." John Stuart Mills "All thinking begins with wondering" Socrates “It is a great loss if we greet every day with clenched hands stuffed with our own devices. We will never know what is out there waiting for us if we don’t extend an empty hand to the world and wait for the wonder to happen.” Daniel Holman and Lonni Collins Pratt Despair hits all of us at some time in our lives. It can be dark and energy consuming. When it has you in its grip, there are questions you need to find the answers for:
• What do you have faith in? • What do you believe in? • What do you take refuge in? For it is these things that keep us standing when things get hard, when the storm hits you right where you feel it most, when something you love is lost, when despair is so close you can smell it, when you feel helpless and small in face of something big. There is a call for us to really know, in our bodies, what sustains us from within. There is never a guarantee that what sustains us from without will be constantly with us. But that which sustains us from within will be with us till we die. The power of faith is tremendous – and can be both positive and destructive (look at all the atrocious acts done in the name of god). It is possible to see those who have faith – it is a lightness in their being, a twinkle in the eye, a surety, a knowing that there is something bigger than them that they believe in. It enables people to walk over fire and not feel it. It enables people to carry out miraculous acts without even thinking about it. And that is the key – for faith, one has to get out of the way, it is not a mind thing, it is a sing of your complete being. The phrase ‘unconditional love’ has been trashed by the New Age scene, but lets claim it back with the power it holds! So what/who do you love without any conditions? For it is this we place our faith in; faith has no place where conditions apply. Faith is an entire thing, all consuming. Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Jelaluddin Rumi |
May you walk in Beauty
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Copyright of Ri Ferrier 2024
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