The image of a raft without oars has got my attention.
If I’m in a raft without oars, I’d have no choice but to make sure I stay IN the raft and go with the flow. One things for sure is that I would not be traveling backward. I would always be heading down stream unless of course I panic, move around too much in the raft – causing it to either spin around haphazardly or turn over emptying its contents and me into the water.
That’s how it is in life. We get into our raft at birth but because we’re too young our parents and caregivers are our oars, taking us where we want to go, giving us just what we need. Slowly we takeover and before you know it, we have oars of our own. The thing is that we start doing a very illogical thing. Instead of going with the flow – we try paddling upstream! This of course if very difficult. We push and fight and wrestle in our raft trying to take it in the direction we THINK we should be going, never stopping long enough to watch what the raft does on its own.
I’ve just got rid of my oars. It’s frightening yes, but I am approaching the journey with a little more curiosity. It feels as if I’m standing still but I trust that I am moving at the pace and in the direction intended for my life all along.
I’ve been fooling myself gripping the oars, thinking that I knew best where I should go. Now that I don’t have them, it’s awkward and uncomfortable but because I’ve stopped paddling I can now listen in to my own heart which leads me to myself…
I am afraid to open up to what this truly is but I am allowing bits in. It almost feels like a food too rich to eat or an experience too overstimulating to feel it all…
And so day by day, I will vow to really be in the moment, to see what I need to see, hear what I need to hear, do what I need to do even though I may THINK that it’s not enough…it is.
My heart is telling me that it’s time to be me.
My wish for you for 2011 is that your heart tells you the same.
Be you. Be you…whoever that is…let go – let go and then…your sun will shine from deep within…and you’ll be born again!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Photo from http://www.waterstainednotebook.wordpress.com
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