Melt Into Life

Lynn Andrews, author of Medicine Woman, tells a story that speaks to the awakening out of the dream of struggle and back into an intimate and alive connection with life exactly as it is. Lynn and her teacher, Agnus Whistling Elk, are sitting in a booth at a diner in the wilds of Manitoba.

Placing a glass of ice water between them, Agnus says, “Lynn, take a good look at this glass and describe it to me.”

“Well,” responds Lynn, “it is a clear glass of water with ice cubes in it.”

“Suppose this glass of water is you and the life you are living,” Agnus said.

“How do you mean, Agnus?”

“You are like an ice cube floating on the water. Imagine you’re the ice cube in the glass now. Let’s say the water in this glass represents the all-surrounding ocean of enlightenment. And you’re floating on it like an ice cube. As an ice cube, you look down at the primeval sea and you know a great truth—that you are made out of the same substance. You are made out of water. There is only one difference. Do you know what that is?”

“I am frozen,” responds Lynn.

“Correct. The only difference is temperature. We come to this Earthwalk for only one reason. We have chosen to come here only to become one with the Great Spirit. In your words, to become enlightened. Yet it’s the one thing we’re most afraid of. You come here like everyone else, like an ice cube trying to melt into the all-surrounding ocean of enlightenment.”

What Agnus is saying is we have all come here to relax into life. And yet we spend most of our lives trying to control it and we wonder why we feel so empty. If what Agnus is offering is calling to you, I invite you to become a tightness detective. Whenever you notice your body is tightening, take a moment and allow a long slow out-breath as you invite every muscle you can find to let go.

The more you do this with your body, the more you will be able to do this with the old patterns of thoughts and feelings that make up your ice cubes. As you relax around them, they can dance right on through you, leaving you available to the only moment that matters, now.

So, right now, as you are reading, relax whatever is holding inside of you. Let go to life! This is no ordinary moment in your life. This moment is fully and completely sacred. This moment is speaking to you. Listen! The safest thing you will ever do is to let go of trying to control your life and instead be here for it.