From Shifting Sands to Celebrating Life
Last Spring, my husband and I rode on a camel to watch the sun set on the Saharan desert near the Morocco/Algerian border.
Getting on and off the camel was an experience I will never forget. It was kind of like riding a bucking horse. You had to hang on to the metal bars, not to fall off, bars which are on the “saddle” of the camel.
When we arrived at our destination, far into the desert, our guides asked us to get off the camel and climb to the top of the sand dune.
That was no easy feat. (No pun intended originally, but it’s a good pun)
Planting my foot on the dune allowed me to get a certain distance, and then the sand gave way under my weight. I’m 79 years old and, though healthy, my knees were not happy with me that day. So, it took something to scramble to the top. Finally, I made it, welcomed by the cheers of the others in the group.
The sand dunes were beautiful.
They were also sand dunes.
Just like those shifting sands, the world is in flux. We take a step forward and find ourselves going backward. In a workshop I took with with Mark Nepo this last weekend, he alluded to the caterpillar, who also curls his body backward before he can advance.
I appreciate this as a metaphor for life right now.
Sometimes, chaos precludes breakthrough. Sometimes, the very obstacles in front of us are the very teachers we need to have at that moment. Sometimes, as Meg Wheatley says, disorder is the harbinger and the necessary step before creative, new order.
Resilience is called for. Being unattached to a particular outcome is called for. Commitment is called for. Attached? No. Committed, yes. Attached, expecting the world to be a particular way or people to be a particular way, in accordance with our image, we lose our sense of being at peace.
I committed to arriving, difficult as it was (and after giving up a few times), to the top of the sand dune. From there, we enjoyed the camels hanging out. From there, we watched the sun setting.
From there, we laughed, rested, and enjoyed each other’s company. From there, we celebrated the success of getting to the top of the dune.
Given the shifting sands of our external world, it is more important than ever to find our own inner rudder, live life out of our passion, and our Soul’s purpose, our own North Star.
When we go deep enough into our own unique individuality, we drop into the universal center of it all and find that place that connects us all, that place of Oneness, Connection, belonging, and profoundly related community.
Take Your First Brave Step
The world recovers from its long illness haltingly, at best. The waves of shortages of starts and stops are like the shifting sands of a sand dune hill I attempted to climb Morocco earlier this year. The Saharan desert beckoned with its beauty. A lone person standing. on a dune, faced east, toward the afternoon light. We dismounted from our camels at the behest of our Berber guides who beckoned us to climb that dune. The tide seemed against me; three quick runs forward, and down I slid again. We are just beginning to see that there is no turning back, a turning back to “normal.” So let’s you and I not go there anymore. The world outside can be rough business. Only, only, only, allow yourself to go deep inward to that place inside where you can slide into Silence< where you can rest in the stillness where you can hear your own spirit call you by your one true name, where you can forge a Voice – your Voice— that unique, individual voice where you are totally your Self and totally One with All— and from there, carve a future of your own making, unmaking all the other futures to which you don’t belong. Create the life that you would love to lead! And, like Indiana Jones, in Temple of Doom, take your first brave step into the unknown and let the path reveal itself to you with all its wonders. Step out from this marriage to your source with the new vows that you have made. In “A Summer’s Day,” Mary Oliver asks, “What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?” That is, indeed, the question.