And Why Would I Ever Doubt? Because I’m Human!

Evidenced-based data.
Fills my life.

I have decades of experience
That tells me,
That fills me with the knowing
That all is well,
Regardless of what
Is happening
Around me.

That I am being
Carried
Across the sky
By something
So much
Greater
Then my own will.

And why would I ever doubt?
Because I am human.

I believe,
I trust,
I surrender,
I love.

I get scared.
I shut down.
I pull away.
I isolate.

Because I am human.

I am touched by someone,
Something,
Red-winged blackbirds
Filling up the wetland
With song.

Someone smiling,
A dog wiggling.

and I am full and whole and alive and trusting and all-one.

And I get scared.
I forget.
I pull away.
I hide.

Because I am human.

Dear Aruni,
Dear Folks,
Dear Everybody,

PERMISSION TO BE HUMAN
IS FULLY GRANTED.

No bad parts, right?
The anxiety is simply
A breath away 
From surrender.

No bad parts, right?
The fear is
The other side
Of trusting.

Give us the courage 
And the willingness
To be okay!
With!
Ourselves!
No matter what 
Part of our self
Is showing up.

May there be Kindness,
Softening around.
Relaxing into
What is revealing itself.

And then?
We are restored.
We are renewed.

We notice—
We are 
Being carried
Across
The great sky.

~~~
Okay.  Here is my hero, Pema Chodron.  I adore the way she teaches—and the bar is high for me.  I love her response to her students.  She cracks herself up when she teaches, which I find beyond-endearing and profoundly authentic.  She is so practical, making the profound so easily accessible.  Pema simply opens the floodgates of my heart.  

This is my favorite, my FAVORITE paragraph in the universe.  If I was stranded on a desert island, if I was isolated in a room for ever and for always, this is the ONE PARAGRAPH I would want to have with me.  Here’s Pema:

“But loving-kindness toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything.  It means that we can still be crazy after all these years.  We can still be angry after all these years.  We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness.  The point is not to try to change ourselves.  Meditation practice (spiritual practice) isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and to become something better.  It’s about befriending who we are already.  The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are.  That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.”

From Awakening Loving-Kindness
Page 3

~~~
Wait.  Did Pema just say, this is not about becoming something better, something different?
This is about befriending who we already are?
With curiosity?
With interest?
Not with shame and self-flagellation?

Pema.
You rock.

Aruni.
You rock.

Each and every one of you.
Each and every one of us:

YOU ROCK.

WE ROCK.

We are on the journey.
We are practicing.

With gratitude,
Possibility,
With
 Wise hope—

May all beings be blessed
By our sharing together,

Aruni