Little did I know when I first posted this piece, that it would become far more haunting and applicable to today’s experience of a pandemic.. I wondered if human beings, like mountain goats, are spiritually coded to stand on the ledges of spirit. May we not fall off. And if we do fall off, may we land well. Godspeed everyone.
One never knows where inspiration will pay a welcome visit. This picture graced my newsfeed this morning (no credit given the photographer, apologies). I wondered if human beings, like mountain goats, are spiritually coded to stand on the ledges of spirit. Must we, if we expect to grow?
Unclench yourself
Open, love, open.
I tell you we are able
I tell you we are able
now and then gently
with hands and feet
cold even as fish
to curl into a tangle
and grow a single hide,
slowly to unknit all other skin
and rest in flesh
and rest in flesh entire
Come all the way in, love,
it is a river
with a strong current
but its brown waters
will not drown you.
Let go.
Do not hold out
your head.
The current knows the bottom
better than your feet can.
You will find
that in this river
we can breathe
we can breathe
and under water see
small gardens and bright fish
too tender
too tender
for the air.
Marge Piercy
A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart.
We know so many things, but we don’t know ourselves! Why thirty or forty
skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox’s or bear’s, cover the soul. Go into your
own ground and learn to know yourself there. Meister Eckhart
For ten years
I stepped and misstepped
In and out of the
Craters of your absence,
Tangled in the tidewrack of
Your memory.
You married
Someone else and
The tidewrack tangled
Around wounds not yet congealed,
In craters not yet sealed .
Twenty-nine years of
High tides and low tides have
Closed the craters now.
Tidewrack washes ashore to be sure,
But it doesn’t stay.
While you must be coupled,
I must be solitary. Your gift to me
Is your absence, wherein I found
My Self.
© rita h kowats
In an effort to protect our egos, we leave in our wake, a destructive landscape of regret. Our acts of protection are as much an animal response as protecting their physical lives is for other animals. The difference, of course, is that we can strengthen our egos sufficiently to withstand attacks and move beyond them for the sake of the common good. The process of moving beyond ego creates a soul-landscape rich in variety. Remnants of ego caught on jagged crags, conjure memories of lies to self and others; charred skeletons of timber stand in witness to courageous suffering endured, and hopeless suffering self-inflected.
Our soul’s geography resembles the terrain of active volcanoes years after they have exploded. Destructive lava flow has given way to affluent bursts of bold, bright, wildflowers- the acts of justice and compassion sown as seeds alongside germs of ego. Patches of green miraculously inch their way through the bowl of impenetrable metamorphic rock.
Just as rock can be intrinsically altered by the flow of hot lava, so is the soul dramatically altered by the movement of the Spirit, and our response to her. If we trust the Spirit, and trust ourselves to grapple with our instinct to protect our egos, seedlings will dot the horizon. Wildflowers, once extirpated by fear, will burst forth like fireworks on Independence Day.
I recommend frequent road trips through the terrain of our souls.
Spirituality Without Borders: Reflections on Spiritual Practice 