On a day when the wind is perfect
The sail just needs to open
And the world is full of beauty.
Today is such a day.~Rumi
Today is such a day to begin. I guess we could all say we are beginning—beginning the next phase of our life, beginning this week, beginning this hour. And beginnings are also entwined with endings, the need to let go and move on. Coming to terms with endings and beginnings, with the ebb and flow of Life, means surrendering to all that is moving with us and unfolding.
Being in the flow doesn’t necessarily mean everything is smooth and peaceful either, or that we inevitably take everything in our stride. I believe it means being open and available to notice every moment, being fully present to the dynamics in the living current right now. “The sail just needs to open…”
Last night I was disturbed by the wind, strong and blustery, heralding a change in the weather. Even though I was indoors the nature of the energy outside was enough to “ruffle my feathers.” It carried a foreboding and a foretelling of things to come, in this case the most easily discernable factor was the weather.
I sat with the discomfort of “not knowing” this morning—not knowing what the day would bring or how my future would shape. Darkness. That familiar though uncomfortable moment when all is blank and I struggle just a little with impatience. As the darkness deepens I sense all is as it should be, nothing to be done, even though I cannot see what is next, there are things growing unseen in the darkness, to be revealed at the right time. That is the flow—feeling, trust, intuition, beginning.
Rilke speaks of being satisfied with things just as they are emerging.
Be patient [patience is always the necessary first step :)]
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
How easy it is to be impatient and rush into discovering the answers, prodding the darkness, thereby totally missing the nature and texture of the question. “Live the questions now.” Live everything!
I sometimes roll a question around in my mind and consider it from all angles. What brought it up? Where did it come from? What is trying to happen through this question? If I trust, very soon the unfolding nature of life brings the solution to my door. I haven’t had to do anything. It seems simply to have revealed itself to me. What a blessing not to be constantly trying to ‘fix’ everything!
I have sometimes been asked what my spiritual practice is, often by others who meditate regularly in the morning or at a particular time in the day, and they ask, “What do you do?” Though it took me a while to articulate, I realize I practice living consciously every moment of the day. There’s not a time when I’m not practicing my practice. It’s an every moment, twenty-four hours, seven days a week opportunity to practice living consciously.
A favorite quote that I have on all my emails reminds me what it takes to practice being conscious in every moment, it is by R D Laing:
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.
Being conscious is about noticing every thought and every feeling that is constantly moving through me. It means taking a moment to notice that thought, quickly before it slips away! Or recognizing that I am feeling something, it may be heavy, grey and fuzzy and hard to distinguish but if I focus I can name it—like “grumbling frustration.” Once I know what I am thinking and feeling in any moment I can make intelligent choices, being conscious of my part in this living current right now.
– Ruth Buckingham
RUTH BUCKINGHAM is a teacher of Primal Spirituality and travels internationally offering courses on spiritual awakening and transformation. Her practical approach encourages people to discover the truth of themselves.