Do you have a favorite word? Words? One of my favorite words is ‘allow’.
Definition of allow: 1. To give (someone) permission to do something. 2. To give the necessary time or opportunity for.
As I continued to consider this term again in my life, another word kept popping up. That word was ‘patience’.
Definition of patience: The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
I found it of no surprise when I allowed myself to heed the call from my intuition that Mark Nepo’s book, ‘The Book of Awakening’, was calling me over. I opened it, read the days passage, and cried. Yes, cried because it’s something I needed to hear. It was something my own heart needed a reminder of; of abundance and of being enough, and of the light and being carried. *Note: I am giving select parts from the book.
“”If you can’t see what you’re looking for, see what’s there.”
One of the most difficult things for us to accept is that beneath all our dreams and disappointments, we live and breathe in abundance. It is hard when in pain to believe that all we ever need is before us, around us, within us. And yet it is true.
Like leafless trees waiting for morning, something as great and as constant as the Earth holds us up and turns us ever so slowly toward the light. Our task is only to be rooted and patient.”
He goes on to write, “Mysterious as it is–no matter our pain or excitement, our drama or circumstance–all that we could hope for is here. We lack nothing.
The humble challenge of being human is not in agreeing or disputing this truth. That is as fruitless as arguing against gravity. Our humble way, if we can open it, is to root ourselves beneath the thousand dreams and excuses that keep us from the ground we walk. Time and again, we are asked to outlast what we want and hope for, in order to see what’s there. It is enough.”
As I led the physical parts of my yoga classes this week, I really tried to support everyone in embracing this message. I invited them, as I always do, but especially this week, to allow themselves to rest when needed, AND to move into postures where they want to go, even if I had not cued it. So, to really allow themselves to follow the light within, to move to embody their desires, needs, and wishes, and simultaneously remembering that as they gave themselves the NECESSARY time and opportunity to do so, that no matter what happened, they were enough/they had all they needed within them self/they ARE the Light!
To allow our practices, whether physical, breath, meditation, or anything else uplifting, to guide us towards the light is a blessing. We might not always be able to see the growth, I know I don’t, but it is there. We can trust that. But, can we do so with patience? Without getting upset, without allowing anxiety to rush in when we haven’t completed something we want/need to do? When we haven’t accomplished something that someone else has? When we don’t have what someone else has, whether we need it or not?
Can we allow all things to grow by giving that necessary time and opportunity?
Can we just allow our own lives to unfold within the light!? Can we allow our practice to unfold and trust the the ‘Earth’? Can we allow our lives to unfold into the flow of the Universe? Can we do this and allow ourselves to not turn our back to the Light when we perceive failure? Can we do this and not turn our back on our Self? Can we have the patience to see what happens? Even when we are called to action, can we have patience that things will turn our as they will? Can we keep being like the tree, so supported by the constant Earth, carried towards the sun?
You don’t need my permission, go! Love! Be! Allow! Grow! And, remember your abundance today and always! You lack nothing!
Mark Nepo’s Meditation:
-Choose a favorite tree or plant, and though you may not see anything, watch it grow.
-Know that as you watch it grow, the Earth is carrying it toward the sun.
-Imagine yourself as such a tree or plant.
-Close your eyes and know that though you may not see anything, you are growing, and that something larger than you is carrying you toward the light.
Breathe and Believe.