A Sanctuary of Re-Membering
I live in a little 1914 cottage with a room at the heart of it that is a sanctuary. That room is my bathroom!
Hanging on the wall behind the toilet is a quote that came to me at the very beginning of my awakening, which I then calligraphed: “Know and silently respect the perfection of everyone and everything in every situation, especially when it’s not at all apparent.”
This quote comes from the heart of the message that life has been asking me to share with you – that life is trustable. It is not always likable, but it is for you, giving you the right set of experiences that help you out of the dream of struggle.
Then, on a small wall right in front of the toilet, between the towel rack and the bathtub, are five framed quotes. The first is something that my son said many years ago: “We have far more influence on our lives than we know and far less than we want.”
The reason that quote is on the wall is that what keeps us in struggle is the illusion that we can control life. To some small extent, we can, but spending our time trying to control it cuts us off from the intimate, alive connection with life that we so deeply long for.
Then there is a quote on that wall by Brian Andreas that every time I read it invites me to open to the flow of life rather than always trying to control it. It is a sketch of a woman riding on an umbrella, and underneath it says:
“If you hold onto the handle,” she said, “it’s easier to maintain the illusion of control. But it’s more fun if you just let the wind carry you.” Or, as the beloved Buddhist nun Pema Chodron says, “Enlightenment is relaxing into life.”
But most of us lost that ability in the first few years of our lives, so scared of ourselves that we became human doings rather than human beings. How did that happen?
The next quote is a black-and-white picture of the backs of a line of nuns in black habits. There is only one nun turning forward, with a shaming finger pointing at a two-year-old child who is crying his heart out. I put one word under the picture: The Wounding.
The next picture I call The Healing. It shows the head and some of the body of a mother fox with the baby fox asleep on her nose. It is our hearts, and only our hearts, that will heal ourselves and the world.
The final quote comes from Sue Bender, who reminds us that our lives are a journey back to ourselves, and that we can learn to listen to our lives rather than always trying to make them different from what they are. She says, “Listening to your heart is not simple. Finding out who you are is not simple. It takes a lot of hard work and courage to get to know who you are and what you want.”
Because you are reading this, you are on the journey back to an alive, loving, and trust-filled connection with life. Yes, it does take a lot of hard work and courage, but as far as I can see, it’s the only real thing that is happening in life.
Are you willing each morning to say to life, “Today, I will listen to what you are offering as much as I possibly can. I will cultivate moments when my mind, my body, and my heart are all right here, right now, so the clouds of struggle can lift, and I can re-member who I truly am.
If this resonated with you, I invite you to join us on July 14th for my Free Night: The Amazing Strength in Vulnerability. We will discuss: We have somehow equated vulnerability with weakness, but the opposite is true. Join Mary in exploring the power of vulnerability and all the gifts it can bring into your life. Click HERE to register!
And as always, I invite you to listen to my podcast on Dreamvisions 7 Radio: We Need You. It will air on Thursday, July 9th and 16th at 5am and 5pm HERE. After July 16th, it will be available on demand, along with every other podcast I’ve ever done HERE. Please feel free to explore my catalog and listen to topics that call to you.