Tending to your garden

This past weekend, I cleared the weeds from the patch of soil in my front yard, leaving only the flowers yet to bloom. This morning beautiful wee sunflowers greeted me, dancing in the breeze. I think they were grateful for the chance to bloom, without the weeds stealing the nutrients they needed. I hadn't given any thought to how the weeds must have suffocated and stifled their growth. Seems odd I didn't think of this. Because any living thing needs the room and a place from which to grow. 

We are right where we are supposed to be at any given time in our lives. I did not learn this from mere rationalization, as we tend to "learn" when we're stuck in the depths of the human condition. I learned this having gone through rough times and much pain, wishing and wanting so badly to be past that pain. Only realizing, in the midst of healing, that without being right there where I was, I would not have gotten to the process of clearing and healing. Without each step and turn and time I had previously wished was never there, I could not be in the place I am now, knowing what I know at this very moment.

It's not simply about being satisfied with where you are, or justifying how you came to be here. Although, when integrated, this idea of being right where you are supposed to be at this moment can make you not only satisfied with your life and self, but grateful and secure and open to all that life has to offer.

When you learn and grow you open up to the new, you open up to what has not been in it's place before your learning, before your growth. Quite simple. And we should always be learning, always be growing, always be open. Which is not to say that we should cling easily to all new experiences. This is a mistake I have made all too often. One that usually results in much pain.

The willingness to learn and grow takes much courage. But it is like a fast-growing, nourished seed. When life presents its opportunity, and you take it- it is difficult to forget what is learned. When forced, if need be, life, the universe, provides you with the foundation to rise up from. And if you do, your spirit tends to remember this. Even if your heart, your mind and eventually, your body tries to deny it. The body processes the denial, the pain.

Through pain and suffering, the spirit learns how to dance. And like riding a bike, it is something we switched on, and are always able to tune into.

Then, comes the resistance. This ongoing battle is one of importance. It is the motivation for freeing the mind, the spirit. It is only until we give up our battle within and let go of the fighting that we become clear and open. Some think this battle can be won only once, and then change can begin- when we stop our behavior, when we make a commitment to love, etc. This, I do not believe to be true. This way of thinking only sets us up to ultimately fail, neglecting to take into account the consistency of the battle.

The battle within rages daily, momentarily even. We must practice moments of letting this battle with ourselves go. And in practice, with each letting go, if it is only 2 moments within the day, we are blessed with 2 moments of clarity, of openness. And 2 moments will give rise to more moments, bringing, eventually- a happy balance between the reality we live in, and the reality within ourselves, the truth of the human spirit.

In this place, we are one and there is love. Not the love of romance, although that love only has it's place here. It is a love of unity and mindfulness, presence in this moment, and our relation to one another, to our creator energy.

So, how does all of this have to do with being right where we are supposed to be, at this moment- when this moment may be filled with great pain and suffering for some? In these moments of clarity, of openness and truth we are not alone, we are not victims, we do not suffer, but exist only in light and love. Like the seed to the sun- we reach up toward the light, growing, changing, adapting, repairing, creating.

This is the place of the human spirit. And no matter where we are in the process of learning, growing, clarity and openness- We are exactly where we should be in that process. For we must have a place from which to move.

We are given opportunities and we take them when we are ready. Pain and suffering give us the soil in which to grow roots and rise above. If we weren't in this exact spot, in this exact soil, we could not grow exactly the way we were meant to. 

We only learn out of ignorance. We only open out of what was closed. We could not do that from any other place. 

Having said that, one must be careful and wise not to spend too long in the pain and suffering of the human condition. For this human spirit is a delicate thing. Years of being overgrown with weeds, without sufficient water and sun, flooding or torn roots and no balance can threaten even the most resilient seed. We must be aware and open to opportunities when they arise and not be too clouded or blind to them.

And so it begins

While setting up my blogger account, I pondered the purpose and subject matter of my new writing adventure. My mind drifted to this subject and that, older posts on other sites and the prospect of focusing on a clear and specific subject matter in my new blog. Patient, was I, confident some subject would reveal itself. And in the culmination of these past few days in setting up my account, a subject has indeed presented itself. It is what had me writing in my early teens, what presented itself in themes of short stories in college, and blogs in my 30's. General, though specific, I will focus on the human spirit and it's place in the human condition. I feel we have lost site that these two concepts are not one in the same, but greatly dependent upon one another. We shall see in the near future how and where this concept and this blog branches. As each and every aspect of what we do, aids in the development and revelation of what we are.

And thus began the focus on this day:

I am sick to my stomach with this turmoil and this pain. Words come to me in jumbles, making sense only to the workings of my mind. Steadfast, eyes closed, I go where I am led. Feeling unkempt and disrupted, my mind is unclear only moments after clarity. This is the way it works. 

We touch upon the truth in our lives, the truth in each other's eyes. And it rains down upon us, sometimes too much to bare. In films, they make it rain so hard, for the viewer to be able to see it on screen.  I imagine it hurts similarly, only on the outside of the skin. And the pain within our hearts, our minds always manifests itself into physical pain, suffering and disease. 

Society has become more advanced, and thus the human condition more complicated and painful. It is a facet of the human condition, to seek to make improvements on it. In that search for betterment, in that quest for understanding, the road oftentimes becomes more dense and strewn with more obstacles and debris. 

I believe it is our responsibility to discern the forest from the trees. To seek understanding from the base of our hearts and the vast openness of our minds. Without this, we shall fall. Without this we will fail. If we seek the prize outside of ourselves, without the quest for understanding and knowing ourselves, we will cause more harm than good-For ourselves and one another.

We seek to be heard, to be understood, to connect with one another and ourselves. But we lack the humility at times, to even be able to begin. 

This seems to me, to be a lifelong agenda, a universal, planetary objective. And I understand that there is energy and movement toward understanding, at this stage more than ever in our history. So, I seek to become a part of which I always have been. And I invite you to do the same and join along in my own quest, my own learning. For one cannot learn or succeed, or become anything without the rest, without being part of the whole.

There are many facets to me, from naive to wise, easily amused to quantitatively complex. I am cynical and open, humorous and engaging. I'm sure to reveal many parts of myself in this blog. But will try to keep my focus on this human condition and the place our human spirit has in that condition. 

And so it begins.