Admittedly I have been tantalized, touched, and transfixed by Bob Klein’s* words. Pursuing this further, I am beginning to be transformed by them.
Listen in your mind, or better yet read aloud the next three sentences from Bob’s email. Is there a message in these words for you?
“Allow the ice to thaw and the water to flow. Let it steep into the hardest stone and the driest earth so that life can begin to grow. Water softens the hardest seed, allowing it to grow.”
True to my habit of speed-reading suggestions like these, I skimmed them, felt my normal what-does-this-mean impatience, and determined there was nothing of immediate benefit for me.
Nevertheless, I forced myself to hang out with these words unconsciously for forty-eight hours. Then bribing myself with chocolate, I decided to ponder them in a more conscious state for a full fifteen minutes.
Here’s the fruit of my exploration:
When I ponder these words as a unit, my body responds. I sense a type of internal movement, almost as if I can sense blood pulsing through my veins and hear the drum of my heart. (Don’t be literal here!)
Next, I eye the instruction to allow ice to thaw. Creating a soft focus internally invites the beginning of a melting sensation that is both visual and physical. This sense of melting is real in the way that a metaphor is real. (Go ahead – Try it!)
In sharp contrast to my usual demeanor as a controlling need-to-know-what-the-plan is oldest daughter, this easing sensation pleasantly surprised me. To say it is difficult for me to soften and let go would be an understatement. I’m supposed to be in charge. I like to be in charge. (What’s your usual demeanor?)
I’m aware that softening and letting go would transform me. I could be a much nicer person. I want to trust that not knowing what the plan is and not being in control is a viable stance. (What would make you a nicer person?)
When I discern that changes in my behavior are needed from a finely crafted metaphor, it is a humbling experience. On the other hand, I don’t feel the embarrassment and shame that comes from being admonished to take off my bossy pants.
Reading these words in silence, or out loud, allows me to soften. To begin the letting go process. To breathe deeper. To pay attention.
What helps you breathe deeper? Which patterns, objects, relationships do you want to let go of?
Tune in next week – there’s still one more sentence in Bob’s message to explore!
Please go to the blog www.NickyMendenhall.blogspot.com and leave comments.
As always, thanks for exploring the mystery. Nicky Mendenhall
*You can learn more about Bob Klein by visiting his website: www.movementsofmagic.com.
2 comments
Thank you for this post, Nicky. I LOVE that quote from Bob! And I am also appreciating your experience so clearly described of the yang mind grappling with the challenge to surrender its control so that the yin quality of receptive, non-judgmental awareness can take the helm and perform its masterly healing functions.
The instructions that were the most helpful to me in understanding how this is done were to sense into my bodily sensations with sustained interested curiosity and non-judgment. Breathing naturally, relaxing into my experience and being aware and open and welcoming to my experience in this way, a quality of consciousness emerges which effortlessly and magically melts all of my inner hard and resistant places EXACTLY like water melts ice. I don't have to DO it. It just does itself while I watch.
For me this is the inner work of standing meditation. To remain in that state of open, relaxed inner listening without judgment. Takes some practice but the rewards are that you let go of all the hard conditioning that is not really you and become freer to flow through life as your wonderful natural self. Linda
Linda – Interested curiosity and non-judgment are such worthy goals for most situations in our lives. Thank you for your words that describe this difficult to describe process of letting go.
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