The Love boils up from the heart. It was not something that was done rather something that is always there. To feel it is to know that the supply is unlimited. Another can not take it away, remove or replace it. For it is.
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise from outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness; and around, wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, the perfect, clear perception—which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh binds it, and makes all error; and to know rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, than in effecting entry for a light supposed to be without.
-Robert Browning
(Photo by Olivier Fahrn)
About a year ago, two questions came to me during journaling and altered my perception and reaction towards external things. These two simple questions moved me from fear and defensiveness towards the center that exists within myself, the place I experience and call balance.
To be in the moment but not of the moment. To accept my Self fully. To embrace the physical manifestations of choice and responsibility. To let go. To accept the hanging on is something I am doing. To let go the gripping, holding, and stuck turns to freedom, flexibility, and malleable movement.
The pictures you see are, but of a soul your mind created. What resides in the dark places are only dark because the light has not been brought. When you shine a light on the dark by drawing your attention gently to it, a lightness comes through an illumined sense of being.
According to good old Merriam Webster, should is defined as used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone’s actions. In my opinion, the word “should” has judgment built right into the center of its meaning. Whether it is judging someone else or equally as detrimental, judging ourselves, I was always taught should equals shame.
Maybe it’s the doing from the place of the problem that is the problem itself. Maybe this approach keeps us mired in the same system that we so oppose, and the solutions are then only at the surface perpetuating the ‘us against them’ story.
Maybe not knowing the solution is where the answer lies that will offer new eyes and begin a new story.
(photo by Ken Treloar)
Have you ever looked at a skeleton and seen the amount of space that exists within the human body without the muscles, tendons, cartilage, etc.? The amount of space between the bones is beyond expansive than what I typically feel within the movement of my body.
Bones are denser than muscles, yet often times it feels as if the muscles are denser then bones internally. A tight back, an achy neck, a stiff shoulder, and on and on. Yet the muscles are actually malleable.
Getting up in the morning a list begins in my head. Who hasn’t done what I want them to? Check, check, check. Mentally, an uncontrollable litany of resentments flows through my mind. I used to try to push them away. My heart knows I really don’t dislike any of that list that flows through my mind but pushing them away makes them louder.
In America, we celebrate labels which only emphasize separation all the more. It sets the stage to believe those labels mean anything; the first woman president, the first black president, the first black woman to win a race.
Although these are milestones that reflect changes in society of “moving forward” and “acceptance” I feel deeply their reflection of acceptance is in and of itself a deep-seated belief in labels and that somehow they are important to the accomplishment at hand.
There is a lot to say about the beauty of being that infuses your doing with grace. One without the other is sure to bring you a life unlived. I am learning, through experience, my human life comes to life through balance; balance between play and work, doing and being, connecting and disconnecting.
