There was an old dream that opening our hearts was always going to feel safe, that somehow love promised that.
That allowing another to matter was going to be easy, that staying close to our vulnerability was somehow not going to feel shaky and at times unbearable.
That to heal meant we’d be in some protected, resolved, untouchable state where we had transcended the sensitivity of being an open, naked, alive human being. That somehow healing meant we’d only have to live in one narrow band of the spectrum.
But the beloved has no interest in our fantasies of invulnerability, of sure knowing as to what is coming next, or conforming to anything. He or she is just too wild for all that, too creative, and oriented in the mystery.
In whatever form the beloved is currently appearing in your life – as an intimate partner, a child, a fellow traveler, as one who triggers and annoys you… as an animal friend, a sunset, a color, a vision, as the water or as the moon… these ones long for your burning. For permission to penetrate and be penetrated by you.
… for that quivering in your heart, for your tender not-knowing. To stand in awe as you touch this world together, not as an expert or master, but as an amateur and a beginner… sometimes broken, sometimes whole, sometimes a mess, but always alive.
When we are totally unclothed – of all our spiritual concepts and fantasies of certain, safe knowing – love will show us what we are. When the known crumbles away, all that remains is this burning heart. There is nothing more alive than that. There is nothing more sacred than that. There is nothing safer than that.
My next two events:
The Path is Everywhere: A Weekend Intensive, June 15-18 in Loveland, Colorado
