My thanks to Carl Duffy at Mindful Balance for sharing these words from Stephen Levine. I am enjoying exploring the nature of Water and honoring the Water Element in the season of Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere.
“Our original nature is like clear water. Born again into a world of wildly changing forms, though having no essential form of our own, we take on the shapes of the containers we are poured into. We become sons or daughters and are told to think of ourselves in that manner. Acculturated, we bend to the curves of that arbitrary modality. Slowly we freeze into that shape. The straighter and harder the edge the more we are praised as being someone of merit….
But water is water. Melting, it remembers; evaporating, it ascends. When you let go of control of the universe, when you let go of everything, only the truth remains. Your actions come out of the present. There is no force. Fully present. Able to respond, not out of personal desire, but out of a sense of the appropriateness of things. You respond from the flow itself, or perhaps better stated, the flow responds to itself. Letting go of the little mind, of your suffering, is simpler than you think, though it’s the hardest work you will ever do.”
~ Stephen Levine, A Gradual Awakening
Embracing our Essence. Recognizing the containers we are in. Finding a way to flow around obstacles. Being present to it all. Letting go of thinking mind. Like a river finding its way back to the infinite ocean.
Join me on Saturday January 29th for an online Mid Winter Retreat capturing the spirit of Water through journalling, gentle Yin Yoga, Qi Gong and relaxation.
Namaste







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