When I was much younger and often filled with discontent I wished to find a place that I “belonged,” a place I might call home. What I have learned as I get older is that no matter where you are, you’re
Already Home
Instead of wishing that things were different, even in a world that sometimes seems as if it’s going mad, I am at home.
Here.
Now.
In this moment.
If nothing else, I know that I belong to myself fully and completely. There is much in life that I have no control over. But I can choose how I respond to life and world events. Sometimes I feel grief when I see all of the violence, destruction, and hate in the world. And sometimes I feel afraid for what the future might bring. Denying those feelings will not solve anything. But allowing myself to be present with them, to work towards opening myself to allow and even embrace those feelings transforms a moment of contraction into a moment of expansion and openness.
My fear, sadness and anger change nothing. When I practice presence, loving-kindness, and acceptance I make space for all feelings. And from that space I can choose love, joy, and gratitude. Those choices CAN make a difference even if it’s a tiny difference.
This is what I have to say to you. Use your discontent, your longing, the sense that you are bereft of connection, use everything around you to nudge you into choosing joy. Make the choice not because life is as you wish, but, because life is as it is. Resist and you know suffering. Jump in with both eyes open and you can drown in bliss.
…
“I can’t get there from here,” you say. My reply is that there is no where to go. You are already home. Embrace your immortal soul, the flame that cannot be doused by wind and rain. Embrace the truth of you today.
— Danna Faulds, Limitless
No Where to Go
I am not always calm and collected nor am I able to feel at home no matter what is happening around me. When unexpected things happen, I struggle to maintain my balance and sometimes I lose it for days, weeks or even months at a time. But I seek to come back to the truth that I am already home, no matter what is going in my life and in the world around me.
Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that’s what’s on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are you going to handle it? In other words, “Now what?”
― Wherever You Go, There You Are
When my head speeds up with worries or discontent my heart says,
Slow down, pay attention, see the beauty that is here now.
I no longer feel the urge I used to feel to get away and I like to think it is because I realize that no matter where you go, you bring yourself and all of your discontent with you. Wherever you go, there you are.
May you feel that you are already home, no matter what is happening.
May you walk in beauty.
Note: photos today are of peonies that I picked from my garden.
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