When I took this picture, I thought I was taking a picture of the floating bug. It looked ethereal and mysterious to me. As I’m looking now, I’m noticing that I’m actually far more interested in the reflection of the trees in the water and the color of the copper bowl, which, of course, reminds me of the labyrinth and how the thing that I’m looking at, focusing on, is not actually where my learning will come from, but rather what will lead me to my next learning, that thing just beyond where I’m focusing, just outside my direct line of focus.
As I stay open to learning, more and more things come flooding in. This whole process of the three spirals and the labyrinth and the land is interesting to me as I look back.I was drawn to create the shape, and through the shape I was drawn to spend time in my backyard, and as I spent time in my back yard I was drawn to prick up my ears and listen and notice the bird life around me, and that drew me to a book called, “What the Robin Knows,” which drew me to a Women’s Tracking Days event, which connected me to two lovely female trackers and a next new book. Right now I’m reading “Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey.”
It’s about a fellow human being’s journey as illustrated by his experiences with two clutches of wild turkeys imprinted on him at birth (or crack? Is it called birth when a bird pecks its way out of an egg? Or is that something else altogether?). Anyway, it’s about his time with the wild turkeys, but it’s also about so much more – life, how we walk on this earth, what we notice or don’t notice. I’ve been enjoying reading about how much he loves snakes. I’m not a snake lover. I don’t hate them, but I don’t go out of my way to accommodate them either. So it was great to see inside the head of someone who honors and reveres them.
Attunement with nature is one of the blessings I’ve gotten out of this path. Something that I will practice daily for the rest of my life, and attunement with people as well. Loving people just as they are, just where they are, just as I am, just where I am. That’s another daily practice. I’m getting more and more adept at accepting myself and others exactly where we are.
The downside to that level of acceptance is that when I’m not accepting, the discomfort is great. I feel a wobble and a dissonance that is uncomfortable. Or at least, I was thinking that was a downside, and then I saw this:
An uncomfortable feeling is like a compassionate alarm clock that says, “You’re in the dream.” It’s time to investigate, that’s all. But if we don’t honor the alarm clock, then we try to alter and manipulate the feeling by reaching into an apparent external world.
This is from Byron Katie. Someone who profoundly affects how I look at the world.
Wow. This is not where I thought I was going with this post, but then I rarely end up where I thought I was headed as I start writing. I love how the enfolding of a blog post feels like the unfolding of the spirals. A winding in and back out again, past familiar territory, but not actually on it until I’ve gone all the way in and am headed back out again.
I am grateful. For this life, for this path, for everything.
