It's okay to feel sad.
Be sad. Fully. Not partially, for your longing will never
be satisfied by that which is partial. Love is full-spectrum and will unleash
all of its children here, including sadness, to awaken itself in all form. It
is an act of profound kindness to turn into the open, sore, achy caverns of the
heart and seed them with holding.
Allow yourself to fall apart, just for a moment. You can
put yourself back together soon. But for now… end the war. Call on the seen
and unseen ones to bear witness and hold you as you fall to the ground. Ask the
moon to help you, or a tree, a friend, a lover, a deer, an owl, or the mud of
the earth. There is guidance everywhere. Attune to the vision as it erupts
within and around you.
Waves of hopelessness, despair, and heartbreak… touch them,
give them a home, provide sanctuary and safe passage for the broken pieces to
unfold and illuminate. For they, too, are filled with light.
Dare to see that the presence of sadness is not evidence
that something is wrong with you. It does not mean you’ve “failed” or that you
are lacking in faith, trust, or gratitude. It doesn’t mean you need to meditate
better, become better at staying in the present moment, manifest the opposite
of sadness, or that you are lost or beyond redemption. It means you are alive.
Welcome.
Sadness is not something you need to fix, cure, or
transform. It need not be healed, but held. You need not shift sadness into
some “higher” state or apply teachings so that it will yield into something
else. For it is complete and pure on its own. You need not pathologize your
sadness or fall into the spell of a world that has abandoned the tender gold
buried inside your body.
Stay close to your sadness and surround it with curiosity,
presence, and warmth. With the fire of awareness and with the ally of your
breath, descend underneath the story of the sadness and into the crucible. Go
on a journey into the core of the feeling, the sensations, the images, and the
raw, shaky life that is longing to be held. And listen.
It is by way of this journey that sadness will be revealed
to be what it is, a secret wisdom-guide and bridge into the universal heart,
come to remind us of something we’ve forgotten in a world that has gone a bit
mad.
Art by Toshiyuki Enoki
The Way of Rest summer retreat – registration open now
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
New book – The Path is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – to be released in April
