Don't turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That's where the light enters you.
- Rumi
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen
Dear Wise Women,
One of the many gifts from our last gathering was the remembering of Rumi’s poem, “The Guest House”. Thank-you to wise woman Carolyn for bringing it up and relating it to our sharing! The Guest House is one of my favourite poems and so, after our gathering, I was quick to look it up and read (and re-read it).
At the risk of sounding melodramatic, it brought me to my knees.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
- Rumi
Though I have read this poem numerous times over the past several years, I seemed to have overlooked, or more accurately, under-felt, the significance of the last sentence, “be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond”.
If you had asked me before, I would have said that I was pretty good at welcoming all the visitors and, yes, I was also grateful for them. But, in the wake of our powerful circles on the innocence of (true) gratitude and the increasing strife in our world, I noticed just how many “visitors” I am still turning away…how many cracks I am not willing to look at.
If I am really honest with myself, I can see that there is even an agenda underlying my willingness to be present and grateful to the unexpected visitors of sadness, depression, anxiety, fear, anger (to name just a few). Like so many students on this path, I must admit that I have become quite attached to the promise that if we are present enough to pause, welcome the painful sensation, and thank it, then we create space for the energy to move and the pain to dissolve. Though I believe this to be a sound practice that is rooted in deep truths, I also see its pitfalls. I see where the human ego can quickly see this process as a tool to escape discomfort rather than embracing it.
And this got me wondering…
When we rush to repair the cracks, do we also prevent the light from entering?
Is it the crack that scares us the most, or
Is it the fear of what the light might reveal?
These questions and others brought me back to the words of Matt Kahn and his insights on how gratitude develops self-worth and self-love:
Gratitude is how we develop the worthiness to both receive the light of the universe (love) and be able to give ourselves the type of nurturing attention, emotional sustenance, and personal support that perhaps other people aren't meant to give us.
This understanding of gratitude has been a complete game changer for me and it has given me the courage to begin looking at the bandaged and scared parts of myself with a new found sense of love and faith. And it is strengthening my ability to, as Matt says, “be the blessings of energetic resolve that brings positive change to what I'm seeing.”
Imagine what the world would look like if all humans had the courage to look at what is broken through the eyes of love rather than fear. Imagine the actions that would follow.
We must start with ourselves (indeed that is all we can do).
May we find the courage to see our own cracks, not as weaknesses or holes to be filled, but as doorways into our souls. May we allow the light in and may we allow it to illuminate the pathway to reclaim the self-love that we were never meant to lose.
Love,
Patti
Lightwork by Autumn Skye-Morrison
“It is the power in each of us.
For the true source of power lies in our hearts.
So let your heart break.
Let it break open until you feel the power of Love surging through your whole body Let yourself be consumed and annihilated by the power of that Love
Then radiate that love out into the world, and pray for all the innocent people at the hands of the men and women disconnected from their hearts, those who seek only to have power and control over others for their own egoic sense of importance. May those innocent people be unharmed. May they be protected. May they be kept safe.
Then radiate that love out and pray for those in positions of leadership and power that are disconnected from their hearts, those who choose to harm others for their own needs and gains. May they remember who they are. May they wake up to the truth of what they are doing. May they return to Love.
Then radiate that love into yourself. Shine a light into all the places you still keep yourself separate, the places where you might feel unworthy or inadequate. The places where you feel shame and guilt. The ways in which you judge. The ways in which you withhold love from yourself and others. Shine the light there and remember that you have the power to choose Love. You are Love.
And you are holding a thread.
We are all holding a thread.
We are weaving this new world together.
May we each hold a luminous thread, iridescent and shimmering with the beauty of Love that flows from deep within our being."
- Words by Charlotte Sophia