#100
It’s Not Only Possible, It’s Already Happening
Happy Life-Line Centenary!
Today is an extra special Life-Line, not just because it’s 100 today, but because I truly believe it will strike a chord with many of you.
I read a poem today that leapt right off the page. (I have included the full version beneath).
It is by David Whyte, and this is how it opens:
INTIMATE INVITATION
“You forget
how, even when
you were stuck,
and without faith,
held back
and afraid to move
even a little,
you could still be like
the beauty
we see in winter ice,
just
beginning to
break and flow”
Poems mean different things to different people. That is part of their inherent beauty and power.
What it says to me is that even in the times when you feel stuck, emotionally paralysed, frozen, weighed down by some force that feels greater than yourself and saps your confidence and joy, you can trust yourself to let go. To feel how you’re feeling, whatever that may be, to give up resistance to the discomfort and come home to yourself.
There is beauty in winter ice that cracks, and breaks up and flows again. Deep forces within want it to move and break free. Like a lobster growing out of it’s shell as it forms a new one.
And yes, there is fear around opening up to feelings and change. There is a sharpness in allowing a crack to appear. But that sharpness soon becomes less about pain, more about exhilaration and freedom.
Your Invitation To Break Free
We spend so much of our lives clinging to safety. Afraid to shift out of our comfort zone. What we fear might be a break down is instead our ticket to break free.
I encourage you not to play life ‘too safe’. There are deep forces within that want you to live vibrantly, joyfully, and yes, at times painfully. The thing is, and I hate to tell you this, but pain in unavoidable in life.
It is in attempting to protect ourselves from pain that we shut out our potential for unbridled joy.
The discomfort, ‘stuckness’, even weariness you occasionally feel is your own resistance to what is calling to you.
So how do you get unstuck?
- Do something, anything differently.
- Try a new thing. Pursue something that has been nagging at you.
- Seek encouragement from a good friend. Alternatively, book 15 minutes with me for free to get you kickstarted. Because if not now, when?
If any of this speaks to you, and you would like a quick chat with me personally you can book a time using this link . Or simply contact me and suggest a time that suits you.
Full Poem by David Whyte
INTIMATE INVITATION
You forget
how, even when
you were stuck,
and without faith,
held back
and afraid to move
even a little,
you could still be like
the beauty
we see in winter ice,
just
beginning to
break and flow.
You forget
how you once
saw so clearly
the brave outline
of a single leaf.
How the stream
of clouds in the sky
seemed to run
right through you,
and the sun on your skin
seemed to pass
right through
to some
inner complexion.
And because
after all this time
you have lived
for so long without faith
in your own joys
and your own grief,
You live daily,
saying ‘love’
as if it were
still far away.
Put down
your heavy burden
and rest
from the hard,
every day labour
of not hurting,
or not feeling,
or not hearing,
or not saying
or seeing.
Stop keeping
the tears at bay,
give it all up,
just come home.
…
Excerpted from
INTIMATE INVITATION
From STILL POSSIBLE
Many Rivers Press Jan 1st 2022
