Life as it is with a messy house, 5 more pounds of flesh than I would like, an imperfect credit rating, cars with serious mileage and health challenges that present themselves often into the rhythm of our family.
Life also unfolds here in the sense of always having a home for friends, travelers and the vagabonds that find their way to our door. These fellow seekers on EarthSchool walk in, take a deep breath and know they are held in a place of acceptance and creative community.
Life as it appears to be now, not as an ever elusive Hallmark card bullshit illusion. The sense of anxiety about our imperfections creates a deep sense of unworthiness in us. We feel that we can love life when our chores are done (are they ever?) when someone else notices and validates us, when all our ducks are in a row, when our health is vibrant, when there is enough money in the bank, when our kids make the right choices…Really? How does this feel? Do you ever arrive here? Does it last?
We step outside this illusion when we can connect to the very basic awareness of being alive! We have this ability just by connecting to our breath! Breathing is the first thing we do when we enter this world and the last thing we do when we leave this world. When we bring our inner awareness to the breath we find all the sacred teachings are here in this very fundamental action. When we inhale, we engage with life as it is right here, right now with the fullness of grounded presence. When we exhale, we let go and surrender Into the flow of life as it is right here, right now. We always have this ability and we can cultivate it and release our attachment to pleasure and our aversion to pain and create a space of acceptance in any given situation!
This is so spacious that it also contains Grace. Bucket loads of it. Infinite, expansive amounts of it. Now, how amazing is this life? Mary Oliver, the poet, tells us about our “wild and precious life”. This is it. The life we have been given. Walk in it. Dwell in it. Abide and grow in it. Breathe. Smile.
