November’s here. Is it possible to have a relationship with a month? . . . It would appear that I do. Novembers past have included living 1/2 mile from the epi-center of an earthquake that rumbled through the house at night like a freight train throwing books, glassware and kids to the floor . . . Another included 100 year floods that filled the basement with 3 feet of nasty water . . . Other’s? A miscarriage, bouts of depression, and the end of a marriage. All this in November past.
I guess it isn’t any wonder that I enter this month with respect and a little wary caution of the kind I had when I saw “Jurassic Park” for the first time. Leaving the theater in a hypnotic trance I found myself automatically looking overhead to be sure a Velociraptor wasn’t about to jump on me from above, after which he’d knock me to the ground ripping my abdomen open with that solitary razor sharp claw. I’m in a similar hypnotic trance conditioned by Novembers past. Minus the claw, I’m looking around wondering what could potentially jump on my head this month . . . However, if 2009 is going to keep having her way with me, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts it will have something to do with LOSS.
Some people would tell me that I will manifest loss thinking this way . . . by entertaining thoughts in a pattern of cautionary remembrance I will materialize loss. Beware the conditioning. Here’s what I think about that--I know there’s a lot of buzz out there about keeping positive thinking and the manifestation thereof. By that line of reasoning, if I hold this caution as a hypnotic trance to any degree, I will manifest more of the same . . . I think I understand the logic, and there is a degree of truth in this . . . AND, there’s more.
Most certainly we are more powerful than we usually acknowledge. We are capable of greatness in thought. Thought is material, and we do manifest from our thoughts. And, it’s not a tidy formula as if life itself will bend to our will. It’s just like us humans to think we can manipulate life, as if it were as simple as a dualistic battle of either/or--”Don’t think negatively, think positively!!!” Isn’t this experience of being human more than that? What of a yes/and ____________ . . . How about leaving a great deal of space for the much, much more our minute bit of consciousness can take in.
I’m not in dreadful fear of what I might manifest by remembering time past. I am in an inquiry of cyclical recurrences in my life, spiraling through the seasons as I work my humanity and move toward my earthly completion. Something in this season has held great learning for me. I’m interested in that. By opening up a curiosity of what might wait for me in the November ahead I am not dooming myself, at the mercy of trance, or manifesting the past by my inquiry.
Life isn’t a magic trick to be wielded. There is no simple secret formula that will override the arduous human journey fraught with emotion of all kinds, and challenges to meet. At the heart, isn’t living a work of our individual and relational development we begin with our first breath and end with our last. Nothing at all ‘magic’ about that, and . . . Having said that, there is this quirky sensation that shows up after the work, the steps taken on a particular 1000 mile journey. On an ordinary day in an ordinary way, we wake up and realize that a previous challenge is simply no longer with us . . . how about that? There are no trumpets, no rockets shooting out of the sky, just a quiet knowing. It feels magical, like it just happened, and most likely? The result of an examined life, well lived.
I’m a champion of personal sovereignty, living it all to the extent of your very best efforts, being courageous in the face of fear, generosity, and taking life so seriously that you laugh much and hold lightly. That’s a ‘formula’ I can live with. So, welcome November!
That’s what this artist is thinking about today . . .
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