LISTENING FROM THE HEART
Originally published in The Mancos Times – January 18, 2012
In my listening I have come to notice that more sleepless nights, more frustration, more anxiety, are born out of our unwillingness or inability to discern those things which are and are not within our control, than perhaps any other issue. Likewise, of those things that are within our control, should we not next make a decision as to whether it is worth our energy to pursue making an improvement? If worth the effort to better things here, let us move forward with ACTION. Will we not then experience how peace and compassion will envelop and embrace us as a warm lover at twilight? Perhaps?
For those of us who live with and within the community of the “yet to recover” and “the recovering” alcoholics and drug addicts, the Serenity Prayer comes to be a near batter cry in the quest for clarity and victory from this tragic dependence. But is it only substance-dependent individuals who have this struggle with what is this and is not within their control? Perhaps this is as common to the human condition as the need to be touched and held. In our frustrations and angers with “what is” are we not like Don Quixote jousting with bravado and grand futility with the windmills around us?
Is it not such a grand experience to be “in flow” doing what we know needs and wants to be done and to address concerns to free and replenish our souls? When we are acting upon those activities that strike at the heart of our fears and worry, a catharsis and healing does then begin. So if you do not have control of the issue that upsets you (or makes your life less than you want) and that issue is important enough to you, get into the “doing” and feel the serenity grow for you. Feel the release of tension within and nurturing that will give you permission to sing your song. When we know we are working on doing our best with the “right things,” our mind will indeed be at rest.
As Master Yoda said “Do or do not – there is no try.” So if we develop the clarity as to where we want to commit our energies for our own betterment, then it is next about getting “traction with action,” and that, my friends, is yet another journey to come that I will share with you.