Good day to you all. The spring has come with a beautiful day peaks of bright blue tones of skies with drifts of cloud brunt orange and reds from sunsets not be forgotten but held in our memory like time capsules we bury for days of winters.
While a day later storms of hail drift by the tiny feet of birds who quibble and take to beautifully practice their balance on branches. Today a chipmunk came as close to me as I’ve ever had. Visiting my blanket, he abandoned the safe harbor of the sugar maple tree then returned back only when startle by the sound of the nearby birds in a squabble. A coupe walking by said, “He must have had confidence in you.”
I reflected on this chipmunk’s bravery along with the acrobats of the birds on a winter spring day and these weather shifts with the thought of how much we can learn from observing our environment about the very nature of ourselves.
Here is what I surmised that I bring to you to consider in your pathway of health:
Ambiguity is the nature of life’s rhythm. Embrace it and we soften.
Each day is a practice in trust in the unpredictable. We are not made to know all things as linear and directive. Embracing the unknown allows us to be in rhythm with life. In practicing opposition to this we find resistance like when we put undue pressure on our bodies with the expectation that it should never “breakdown.” Our bodies are fallible and open receptors to many influences throughout our day both positive and negative.
Perceptions of challenges can manifest as stress, pain and illness. Just as the winds bring weathers we can’t predict so do our bodies. The opportunity exists in any seasonal change to adjust and surrender with faith and hold it as an opportunity. Rather than charge into the wind of hail, take as the bird to find your perch to wait out the storm.
Trusting in the process as the gift.
When we trust in the process of healing we give up the result and focus more on the guide we take to getting there. By doing so we create new patterns of addressing the upset and managing the chronic condition that will become a new habit we form in our lives. When we feel at our best we celebrate. When we find ourselves unwell we wrap ourselves in the gift of kindness. Letting go of a necessary outcome to our health in order for us to begin to feel good allows us to be loving towards ourselves no matter the weather.
It takes courage, a willingness to get lost.
Just as the chipmunk took a chance to come and visit me, each mark of his zigzag path was marked with uncertainty of his journey. When we are ill we often feel alone, lost out of step with time and people around us. Acknowledging this space as being lost and wandering. Stepping into the loneliness to find your way through takes courage.
It takes being authentic with people in your lives who you trust that can light a candle temporarily while you walk through the dark. It takes saying “I don’t know what to do, I’m scared” while you forge on path forward in the only direction left to go. It means taking up your personal mantra of hope; the words you would tell the person you love to have faith and repeating it to yourself.
If we can practice gifting ourselves with these trust building practice, we can carry our lives through the fear.
In health,
Safara
