THE COURAGE TO JOIN

“The real story comes from a love-source that cannot be understood with intellect, but known only as a person is known.”

~ Coleman Barks

Living in modern times has turned us into watchers, placing a sliver of distance between us and everything we meet. It is the watching that disheartens our days, that takes the color our of the earth and makes the songs of time sound flat.

The Native American view on this is healing. With respect for all aspects of Creation, we are asked to honor whatever we see - rock, rain, fence, or stranger - as a member of our family.

By honoring all things as living, the courage to join with the Universe becomes a manner of being that can happen even while sitting still. In knowing the world this way, there is no such thing as metaphor. The wind is not like God’s voice. The wind is God’s voice. Memories are not images of loved ones returning to us. They are the spirits of loved ones visiting us.

It takes courage to remove the sliver of distance we carry around our necks, but the reward is a world alive and not dead. Such courage lets the juices of the world flow.

~ Sit quietly and center yourself.

~ After a time, imagine that the things about you - window, tree, rug, bed, door - are alive in the way that plants are alive.

~ As you breathe, feel their energies breathe.

~ Through your heart’s beating, take the chance to welcome them.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo