Balance comes, not from holding onto a situation, but from making friends with heaven and earth. Earth is gravity, or practicality. Heaven is vision or the experience of open space in which you can uplift your posture, your head and shoulders. Balance comes from joining practicality with vision, or we could say, joining skill with spontaneity.
Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
Everything is always changing. Everything. Especially that one thing that I insist not change (and, of course, that one thing . . . changes from time to time).
This is a truth I keep coming back to. I usually am rather forced to come back to it after some period of mentally or emotionally trying to hold on to something that wants to change. You likely know how this goes. We hold on to something or someone, demanding that they not change, and then in tears, or anger, or resentment, or resolve, or in utter exhaustion (or feel free to combine any of these), we let go. In that moment, something in us has the potential for change.
What have I just learned from letting that thing or person go? How have I or will I or can I change as I let them go? Moving forward, what will be different in me and my walk upon this earth because of this episode of trying to stop change from changing?
As Trungpa observes, we can find our path balanced between practicality and vision, between gravity and open space, between skill and spontaneity. But, it’s still change. Everything is always changing.
During the month of March, we explore the Gifts of Transformation. Many of us bristle at change, especially when it catches us by surprise. Even the really big changes can become a gift to us. Let’s explore.
~Bob Patrick
Let’s explore indeed! On March 17, we’ll listen to Oleta Adams’s recording of the gorgeous song “Everything Must Change.” I find her rendition honest and hopeful at once, while that other extraordinary artist, Nina Simone, delivers it in an achingly mournful way. All of this is Life itself–the change, the hope, the mourning, the diversity of perspectives and interpretations.
Grateful for your reflection, and for the community where we can explore!
With Love at the center,
Rev. Nancy