Work With What is Given
Dream, dream, dream, my Love!
Project your heart’s innermost seeds as far as you may in every direction in time and space. How far can you go? How deep do your roots grow? What is really possible on this Earth?
Anything, anything ~ my Love!
Dream it into being, feel it in this moment, the greatness of possibility before you as it relates to what is.
The path from there to here, of realizing the full expression of your vision, is upon you now. Here is the Way: work with what is given.
Everything you need is here. If you want to be better able to respond to the opportunities of each day and moment, then take responsibility. Do what you can with what is given now, for what you are given now is already the response to the innermost impulses of your Heart.
It is up to you to receive the experiences of life as such - gifts! Life is supporting you in every way already…the only obstacle is yourself, a mind conditioned to see and perceive according to limitations, a constricted sense of self.
Imagine, you are walking along a lovely forest path. There are a million shades of green around you, great big tree elders of hundreds of years. The upper reaches of the mountain you are walking exhales slow mists that descend through the branches and forest floor. You reach a point in the path where you cannot so easily go further, as a river has swelled to a cascading waterfall over the stones before you now. The water is white and clear, it finds its origin in the melting sheet of ice of an upper mountain lake. Now, do you complain that your hike has been spoiled, and turn back? Do you cross over begrudgingly, exasperated by the inconvenience or stressed by surprise circumstances?
My recommendation to you is to pause, to take it in what is before you in its fullness…and to accept the invitation to cross along the free stones sticking out of the water. Further, give your face a good splash with that cold water, give yourself a blessing with the billions of snowflakes that have newly transformed themselves into fresh flowing water. Take a moment to receive both the gift and the challenge, the medicine of the experience. Take a moment to relate to what is here, to feel, smell, taste the other, this beautiful water. Step into your body in trust, trust yourself, and go the way.
Work with what is here.
“Charity begins at home”, I hear my grandmother whisper. If you want to be respected and achieve greatness, show up in greatness and respect with every relation and situation in your life. Don’t assume, don’t compare, no need to get impatient if the gap seems far at times between what is and what could be. The Love finds itself in the way between, the path itself is the medicine, the joy and pain of growing.
My agreement is with Life and therein lies the true living and all-present relationship in which I am held to the highest integrity and alignment of my thoughts, words, and actions. When I work with what is given and I give my best self, my whole Heart, even in smallest everyday situations and opportunities...I am given more to work with.
Real life current example: I have been studying outdoor/nature education and rites of passage, and wish to offer this to children as well as a way to assist adults undergoing great transitions in their lives. I imagine creating spaces for people to develop a deeper relationship to Nature, to Community, and to themselves. Where to begin? Well…what has Life brought me already to work with, to take a step further on this path and the vision of this possibility? What is here now?
>> Here are three beautiful children, my nieces and nephew, living in the same Place I am, whom I love and deeply enjoy connecting with, and beautiful Nature around us. Wow, I accept and act upon the gift that is this opportunity, a direct entering into a mutual reciprocity and container for Love to grow.
>> Here now is also my beautiful sister, in need of someone to help plan her ceremony for the Life rite of passage that is marriage, union with another. Here are direct opportunities to DO it, to take the steps that are reaffirming, rewarding, and enriching for both my own path and that of an other, whom again I love greatly.
Though my vision may fly far ahead, I humble myself before the teacher that is Life, in all its wildness and unpredictability. The heat and light of the sun, the rich darkness of the soil, the duality of Nature. I humble myself in recognition that this work is too great for me to carry alone, in this fragile human form within this great & powerful sea of the unknown. I therefore invoke the fullness, integrity, and presence of all of my relations.
WE are the key.
I am rooted in Presence ~ we can only work with what is here now, what is given. In partnership with our Self, with Life, with Spirit...We create the Way.
With Love,
Ness