What is my best response for the life that’s showing up for me?
Astrologer Steve Dahmus
Spoiler alert: life is still coo-coo bananas.
Many of us are seeking answers, whether for our health or the health of others, or how to move forward with more awareness in our daily lives and for black lives and for socioeconomic/political situations at large. Uncomplicated inquiries like that [I kid].
Prolific spiritual teacher Adyashanti recently asked us students of the Insight Meditation teacher training program: how can we live in a state of discovery rather than in a state of conclusion?
I find this incredibly relieving to consider, which is how I remember feeling when one of my first yoga teachers told us that we would never be expected to know everything [exhale].
It’s almost as if we can give ourselves permission to be on a constant adventure; on a continual path of investigation instead of pressuring ourselves to arrive at a specific solution.
And yet it is also very human to feel deeply; to flip the lid sometimes and anxiously await an explanation; to break down and grieve and wonder WHY?.
It is very natural to feel tired of it all; like we just can’t hang with our Selves or the situation or someone who triggers us; like we simply cannot keep calm let alone carry on.
This is the challenge and the journey: to meet our Selves where we are at each day; to respond to life as it shows up for us as it ebbs and flows with the waves of the seasons; to recognize that we never have to have it all figured out and instead we can just be figuring it out as we go [and on and on until the “end”].
Especially with everything going on in the U.S. in politics and racial/social/economical injustice and that little pest we call COVID, it is not atypical to want to retreat and ignore all the things.
Ignorance, however, is not bliss. Because bliss, truth be told, will not arrive without facing adversity – not unlike the classic hero’s journey in and of itself.
Yes, there will be growing pains in uncovering the truth – some wounds will be deep; some of us sadly may not make it. But those who do come out on the other end will ultimately be liberated and connected in profound ways; it will uplevel not only our personal lives, but also the lives around us in a seemingly invisible yet palpable ripple effect.
Perhaps, in this case, we can let any answers we uncover to life’s tough questions – especially right now – be the spark that ignites the flame for positive change; the seed for growth and enhancement.
In her book Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach reminds us that we all embody basic goodness, and validates the effort it takes to keep the faith in each other and the world at large:
…When we harm ourselves or others, it is not because we are bad but because we are ignorant. To be ignorant is to ignore the truth that we are connected to all of life, and that grasping and hatred create more separation and suffering. To be ignorant is to ignore the purity of awareness and capacity for love that expresses our basic goodness… To recognize this basic goodness in everyone takes courage… human bravery is ‘refusing to give up on anyone or anything.’
Not ignoring important yet uncomfortable issues neither means that we have to be calm and collected all the time nor that we will always be in battle with someone/something.
We are all allowed the human experience of joy and sorrow, triumph and tribulation, high and low. We can learn from all of these circumstances and emotions as they come and go, so long as we are willing to open up to the full spectrum of this life without the perpetual need to arrive at an exact answer.
It’s a bumpy ride, so let’s make sure that our furnaces are fueled; that we maintain our vehicles with loving attention; that we keep the faith in one another and life itself and also let ourselves lose our cool sometimes; that we keep living in discovery without always needing a definite conclusion.
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Onward.
Photo: by Grant Henry Media in Brooklyn, NY.
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