In an inclusive embrace of life - right inside the messy,
shadowy, nether regions of the psyche - we are invited to meet the wholeness
that we already are, which includes the dark and the light, the activity of
separation and union, and the entirety of what it means to be an fragile,
sensitive, and powerfully vulnerable human being. Paradoxically to the mind,
but in ways the heart and the body know natively, inside the core of the
vulnerability is a certain non-ordinary gold, a jewel that is found only there.
Awakening is not only a creative process, but a destructive
one as well, and love appears to be equally ready to employ either energy in
the fulfilling its mission here. What that mission is we can never know in a second-hand
manner, but only by way of primary experience, bearing witness to the numinous
as it pours through us and into the relative world.
As we look carefully, beyond the veil just a bit, we may
sense something longing to emerge out of the mess and the chaos, surging up
from the dark, rich soil of the body and out of the earth itself. Right out of
the core of our deeply embedded sense of unworthiness, disconnection, and
loneliness. Spinning even out of our moments of anxiety, hopelessness, and
despair.
But will we provide a home for it when it arrives? An
attuned holding space in which it can unfold and illuminate the path ahead? Or
will we contract from it, pathologize and seek relief from it, and move quickly
back to stable ground? Of course it is kind to take care of ourselves in
whatever ways we are able, and to bring relief and ground at times when that is
possible. But there is another invitation, one that is more alchemical in
nature: to turn into the symptom, the emotion, the image, and the vision, and
to discover the wisdom that is buried therein.
While we may long more than anything for the high-voltage
aliveness that underlies the path of the heart, a part of us may always remain
a bit unsure, as we sense the implications of living in this new way, and what
will truly be asked of us… which is everything. But perhaps you have been sent
here to this particular place, to this one lonely star out in the middle of the
vast expanse, to embody this love and this wisdom and this attunement so that
beings everywhere may come to know their true nature.
Art by Eric Vasquez
New book – The Path is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – to be released in April
The Way of Rest summer retreat – registration open now
