LOSTNESS
The only way to be found is to at first – be lost.
We start here and reclaim from chrysalis the essential nature of lostness in our lives. Whe must lose our way and be thrust into a state of disorientation if we are to have any experience with chance.
Every master artist will tell you that their greatest masterpiece was born out of a "mistake". Every explorer that discovered new lands followed their lust for adventure – without the aid of maps. Every mother knows that life miraculously forms in her belly in the darkness – far from prying eyes.
Sadly, in our modern world we're taught to eradicate the mystery in everything in order to maintain our vice grip on control. This synchs directly with fear. It's limiting, and worse, it's deadening.
Even nature knows after 4.5 billion years of successful evolution that life is born in darkness. Just look at the magical gift of the monarch butterfly moving bravely from land bound caterpillar to vulnerable chrysalis – and ultimately to winged beauty! There is a great deal of letting go in that whole arc of life.
So, let's break free and embrace the mystery! Let's re-wild ourselves by dropping in and integrating with the void – that from which all good things come..
AUDIO TEACHING
CHRYSALIS
It's time now to witness the awe inspiring transformation of monarch caterpillar to chrysalis, and then on to winged butterfly. Notice how necessary the stage of chrysalis is to the ultimate and miraculous event of full metamorphosis. Again, in order to be found, we must at first be lost.
I witness this miracle each summer in my backyard butterfly nursery, and even last year nurtured sixty all the way through to their release. Witnessing the monarch in action continues to bring me to my knees in awe and wonder. They inspire me to let go and trust in the unforseen.
NOW YOU . . .
Standing Tree & Quiet Chrysalis
An Experiential
Today, you're invited to lose yourself and from there, be found. Below is an embodied practice that is simple and designed to give you a much needed experience of surrender. Before you begin, take a moment to read the full practice below and have your journal ready so you may record what rises for you.
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Set your timer on your phone to one minute
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Stand with your feet only slightly apart, arms hanging gently at your sides
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Take a deep wholesome breath in, then hit start on your phone and gently close your eyes
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Relax and notice what happens to your body when your eyes are closed and not working to calibrate your stance. Imagine, if you will, that you are a tree gently swaying in the grove. You are the observer with no sight. Your other senses will come alive and respond with intuition, sensing, feeling. This is what it's like to soften the ego and let go. As David Whyte tells us, "the darkness will give you a horizon further than your eyes can see."
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When the timer goes off, take one more deep Yang/Yin breath and then move to the floor and fold into child's pose.
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Fold in like a Chrysalis and be still. Stay for as long as you like.
A POEM FOR THE SOUL
Sweet Darkness
by David Whyte
Now for the soul, a poem to help integrate the essential landscape of darkness into your co-creative life.
In my work as recruiter, life doula, wife, sister, friend, mother, wanderer – I recite this poem to myself most days. It is one of only two in my adult life that I have committed to memory.
This poem by David Whyte, who is an Anglo-Irish poet, said once that all of his poetry and philosophy was based on "the conversational nature of reality" – in other words, call and response. So let's go there without any attachment to the outcome. Let's join with David, and embrace the dark.
A moment in the darkness.
When I close my eyes and surrender to the dark, I feel . . .