Lessons from the Oak Tree.
Illustration Gifted by Rick of Misty Summer Prints t.ly/h0h8f
Each of us is on a unique and profound journey with an infinite number of variables and complexities; mostly invisible to those around us. There is no equivocal right or wrong decision or set of decisions. Comparison of journeys is not the antidote to uncertainty; in fact, there is no antidote to uncertainty. Each and every one of us are exactly where we were meant to be, exactly where we were meant to journey, precisely on time. Every step taken, every pause, every exploration, every misstep has led us to this exact moment. The future is here [4].
At the same time, there is no rush, no emergency, no destination. Not even in death. Peace, compassion, tenderness, ease lies within rest. When we relax past the discomfort, through the pain into rest, we discover that we do not need to “do” a single thing. It turns out what is good and true and beautiful feels good. Surrendering to pleasure, allows us to be naturally pulled, like a magnetic, by our inner knowing towards our ancestors, decedents, community, towards our greatness.[1] The effort and pain, our edge of expansion, lies within the process of surrender to the agitation between us and rest; us and pleasure. The edge will yield when it is ready to yield. The forging will take as long as it takes. Speed is found in the slow, the smooth, the tender. Friction is found in the attempt to grip, to manhandle, it is in the edict. The expansion is within the trust that the “doing” will be pulled forth in phase, in tempo, in rhythm with the vast symphony of existence. Paradoxically, the doing lies within rest [4].
Slowing down, ease, rest, pleasure is the path to embodiment. Embodiment accesses connection to your own turbulent ebb and laminar flow[2]. Connection to your energetic flow lifts the veil revealing the lattice of existence: human, inhuman, animate, inanimate, physical, nonphysical, seen and unseen, dream and concrete world, past, present, and possible. This is where our power flows forth. We resist rest and pleasure and the path to our power because it reveals what we do not want to know -
The journey of consciousness is inherently and intensely lonely arduous. Not a single concordant beat exists that can validate the worthiness of the paths we each traveled. That uncertainty, that anguish is the dark corridor we all know we must pass, and yet obfuscate. It acts as a crucible, the only liminal space formidable enough to nurture the ice-hot flames capable of forging the lattice of existence, of connection. That uncertainty, that anguish, that suspension is the bond that welds us all as one. Lonely but not alone.[3] This is where the roots draw nourishment. This is the seedbed that gestates and incubates. This is the home of our power. In the mulch of our smoldering ashes, is where the exquisite, the divine, the ecstasy reside.
[1] https://dralexandrasolomon.com/podcasts/the-neuroscience-of-pleasure-why-good-sex-matters/ [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0021929014000025 [3] Phill Stutz Singluarity of Oneness
[4] Rest is Resistance: A MANIFESTO, Tricia Hersey
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