The picture of guardian you've seen before, sometimes covered with snow or frosted with flowers. Now decorated with autumn leaves, it seemed the perfect image to illustrate this quote. This author is a reflective writer; autumn is a reflective time for many of us. Reading Singh almost always initiates a journey into self.
When I couldn't manage to position the photo right side up, I thought, Ah Ha! my technical inadequacy adds another layer of meaning.
Here's my thought: When we open up to what is, as Kathleen suggests, we may feel jolted out of our usual way of seeing ourselves and the world.
Here's her quote:
"As we deepen our understanding of the entire human journey, from conception through death, we deepen our capacity to live more fully and freely, awed by the fact that we are alive. We become different beings through the transformative power of our insight into the dying process. We become larger, more integrated, and somehow more real with this expansion of our horizons and remapping of our boundaries. We enter levels that allow our now deeper being to open to what is -- giving and taking, in living and in dying, with fewer gimmicks and simpler truth, with less frivolity and more joy, with less suffering and more gratitude."
Let me know when you feel jolted out of your usual way of being in the world and how you stay with it - because that's what the experts say we need to do - stay with the feeling.
Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall
*Companioning the Dying: Opening Fully to Living info@companioningthedying.org
This seems at odds with your previous post on being calm. Do you have to jolt yourself out of calmness, and can you find another calm level? Maybe I'm thinking too narrowly. But at least you have me thinking.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nolan for the comment. The two posts do seem contradictory if, as you say, we look at the opposites and think we have to choose one or the other.
DeleteVery wise of you to suspect there is more going on in your question than is first obvious. Being calm all the time can lead to boredom; Continual jolts too stressful for most of us to manage.
It is not very often that we have to jolt ourselves - someone or something will usually do it for us!
Thankd for making me think along side you!