Breaking Open

There is a great healing afoot. Creative Spirit keeps bursting forth. Evidence of this is in my daily Facebook newsfeed. I see how she calls all of us forth. Either we are making things or are in awe of what’s shared, or both. Creativity feeds us. This is especially true in disruptive times.

In my life, I see that creativity calls me down dark alleys and leads me into dead ends. In those lost places I  find pieces of myself.  Creative Spirit does not care if I am scared. She does not care if I feel lost and confused. She does not care if the path is long, bumpy and twisted. She cares only that I scoop up these lost pieces, fold them into my apron. And like the most delicate of eggs, I carry them to my nest so they may hatch and grow.

We are rediscovering parts of our humanity as we distance!

And still there are moments of terror. The breaking apart of our known way of living leaves us feeling vulnerable and uncertain. Self-help tools, we gathered over the years, are now stretched to their limit.

Clearly, there is much suffering as this disease ravages bodies and our economy is shaken to its core. I wondered why deep change is so painful. Yet, it makes sense that the more profound the change the deeper the pain. This is one of those times.

At a soul level we are coming home to ourselves. It’s as if the soul said. “Look, you haven’t been listening to me. Now go home and think about what I’ve been saying.” What are the messages our soul has sent? Slow down! Drop in to the moment! Maybe, just maybe, when we do a new way to enter our life will appear. And maybe, just maybe, we will take a daring step to live with a deeper connection to our souls.

Mother Nature is calling us also. She reminds us that we are part of an Unfolding Mystery. Her rhythms are reassuring. I watch the daffodils, magnolia buds and tulips with increasing anticipation. Life affirming patterns have become especially reassuring this spring. We can find a place of rest in nature. Wendell Berry knew that. He seems to be speaking to us in these moments…

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

Listen
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Creation and destruction are both part of the patten of change. Forest fires pop open the pine cones and seeds are released.* We are breaking open in a fiery change. Now our work is to stay open to our soul’s whisper. Creative Spirit may visit in many ways. Stay open to her tug.

And when you are restless, climb into the lap of Mother Nature and listen for the whisper of your soul.

*Lodgepole pines have a layer of resin and woody tissue on the cones’ scales that keep seeds locked in tight. They need extremely high temperatures, like a forest fire, to open. “Serotinous” is a scientific term for a seed that requires an environmental trigger in order to be released. For the lodgepole pine, that trigger is heat. They can wait several years for enough heat to open them.