Navigating the Mysteries - Finding authenticity and the way to a more loving world.
Listening is not only my responsibility, it is an honour and a gift to be able to listen to all that is around me.
When I listen to all that is around me, I am acknowledging its existence and have the opportunity to learn, heal and grow spiritually from it all.
Becoming a Hollow Bone, by Anne Wilson Schaef
I am in reflective mood, and I invite you to join me, under the prolonged illumination that July’s super full moon symbolically offers, to listen to the season in which you find yourself.
Here, the long warm days of summer are in full flow. Families escaping unprecedented heat in southern Spain journey to the cooler north, pouring into the town I call home, for their long awaited vaccaciones. I visualise the steam from their hectic lives escaping in ethereal clouds as they gather on the beaches and in restaurants to play, chatter and laugh together!
More and more pilgrims, glowing from their days of walking arrive too. Some in celebratory mood, readily share the delight of their Camino experiences, whilst others appear brittle, bodies and faces taught with the realisation that this phase of their journey is ending. Perhaps the seeds from their pilgrimage are already encased in hard pods, ripe for the scattering.
A few stay awhile, to pause and reflect on their journey so far. Late in the evening, small groupings collect on the rocky shore, quietly watching the sun sink into the sea on its daily cycle of death and rebirth.
The pace at Navigating the Mysteries has eased too. After the initial hatching and rapid growth, it is time for a maturing. Like the sparrows I see from my window, my work now is to pay attention to this fluttering, chirruping initiative and bring it (and myself) to a maturity from which we can be of true service in the world.
I have lofty ideals about my values and those that I want Navigating the Mysteries is to be founded upon. As I reflect, I find that some of the things that were previously important to me, no longer ring true. These can be swept away.
More challenging, some incongruences between my past actions and current aspirations are being revealed.
Ouch!
Do I whitewash over the cracks and continue in my old ways, or do I listen to the wisdom voices that invite me to acknowledge their existence and embrace the opportunity to learn, heal and grow spiritually from it all?
As I pause to ponder this question, a daily wisdom message drops into my inbox:
“[Real love] is a state where we allow ourselves to be seen clearly by ourselves and by others, and in turn, we offer clear seeing to the world around us. It is a love that heals.”
(Sharon Salzberg, “Real Love”)
The tag line for Navigating the Mysteries is
“Finding authenticity and our way to a more loving world.”
What better way to find my way to more loving world than to allow myself to be seen clearly by myself and others?
Fortunately, I live to dive down, to search through the weeds of my inner world, to glean new understanding and bring it back to the surface to share!
One such recent exploration, titled Birds of a Feather, is offered as the Full Moon Feature this month.