Drop into now...

It's easy for us, I know, to be present in this moment when this moment is filled with happiness, and laughter, and the things we label as "good." It's a lot harder to be present in this moment when this moment is a moment of sadness, grief, or anxiety.

Life is constantly changing. Our emotions are constantly changing, as well. Writer Parker Palmer tells of his experience of Outward Bound. In Outward Bound he was expected to confront whatever obstacles were present in his environment. Through this experience, he would gain confidence and new learning about himself.

One of the tasks he was given was to have a slim rope tied around his waist as he was dropped over the edge of a cliff. At first he clung to the cliff, and as he did so, he dropped awkwardly onto the ledge below him, almost falling off the edge. At the top of the cliff, his instructor kept yelling down to Palmer to fall into the abyss, instead. To do so, he would have to trust his bearings on the side of the cliff, trust the weight of his body to be held, trust his feet to make their way down the side as surely as he would make his way on a city street. At first, this seemed unimaginable. Finally, having run out of options, Palmer dropped into his full weight, and trusted himself to "walk down" the cliff. It worked! He did it!

Every day we are also confronted with obstacles and opportunities to learn to trust ourselves. Our most common approach is to run from many of these opportunities. In Palmer's situation, that didn't work. He had nowhere to run! The truth is, neither do we! The obstacles and the uncomfortable parts of ourselves that we confront remain, whether we run or not. From the time we are children, most of us have learned to run away from the difficult feelings inside of us. When we attempt to do that, they remain, like the abyss below us.

Today, practice "dropping into" whatever emotion, experience, or situation you confront. Notice what happens. This is your practice for today.

Warmly,
meb