The day is exquisite. We enjoyed breakfast outside by the bay. I am home now listening to birds.
I think of family and friends, and those I don't know, the pain we all share as we struggle to understand, and also let go.
I led my sensory awareness group a few weeks ago, led them in experiments. I asked them to each have a flower, to hold it, and feel it and smell it, and then, to gently remove one petal. You can actually hear a petal release, and my flower was a red rose that was literally falling apart and yet when I pulled on one petal, it required strength and I heard the pop. We pulled the whole flower apart, and then, lay down on the ground, and envisioned our bones torn apart. We lay on charnel ground. What is it to open to that extent. to imagine how the Tibetans deal with those who have died, with bones cut up, and left to be lifted in the beaks of birds? What is it to have one's bones lifted in flight? What is to let go, to fall apart, and how many times might we do that in a day, how many times might we meet ourselves in new ways?
I have been feasting lately on the words of my teacher Charlotte Selver, and today, I come to a photo given to me of one of Marion Rosen's hands. She touched so many people in her many years of physical therapy and Rosen work that her fingerprints were worn off. This quote from the Gospel of Thomas guided her work.
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
May we all find ways to bring forth what is within us, and to treat that bringing forth with tender grace.
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."