The most important work you can do is in trusting the journey. The time between the end of the holiday season and the emergence of the New Year can come about abruptly and be undefined. There is a sense of liminality as one time period comes to an end and you are faced with inevitable transition. May the twilight of the present year and the first rays of the next one create a lasting connection and imprint within you the importance of the beginnings, endings and opportunities for redirection that are taking place in your life. You are a traveller wading through the conscious and unconscious, the collectivity and the divide, the known and the unknown.
As with any expedition you embark on, your utmost concern is safety. That of yourself and the ones you love. Most often, this is made apparent through planning, attempting to control outcomes and working to the bone to ensure you reach a certain destination. What does it look like to be in the right place though? What is true security? Are you looking for the antidote to fear, immunity to failure, a sense of belonging? The asylum you so fervently seek is found when you plant your two feet, body and spirit, in the dark and rich earth of divine love.
Paul wrote to his friends and said: “I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love as it surpasses knowledge. May you be rendered complete with the expansive fullness of God.” This is the mother tongue of oneness, connectivity, flow and amazing grace. Hope turns the handle and trust opens the door. When swung wide on its hinges, you will discover that all you didn’t dare believe is in your destiny after all.
Your work is to trust that you are being delivered truth. That when a friend compliments you, they have sincerity in their heart. That you are deserving of celebration and acknowledgement. There are no guarantees on this non linear pathway and there will be stumbles across the way. Roadblocks that force you to reassess and reevaluate your decisions, circumstances that require moving on from and moving through, upsetting your carefully laid plans. Trusting the journey isn’t about adopting a victim mindset through begrudging acceptance. Life is full of twists and turns, pulls and pushes, twists and turns, moments of grief and bliss, work and play. There is room for these feelings to coexist, even as they contradict each other. We were created for union. Why is this not historically our storyline?
In this space, you’re not required to pretend or perform. Just commit to showing up and know that the steps make the staircase. This is the path forward. Richard Rohr said “Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves us so we can change. What empowers change and makes you desirous of it is the inherent experience of love. This becomes the fuel and engine of progression. If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every Christian virtue. Justice without love is legalism, faith without love is ideology, hope without love is self centeredness, forgiveness without love is self abasement, fortitude without love is recklessness, generosity without love is braggery and extravagance, care without love is mere duty, fidelity without love is servitude. Every virtue is therefore permeated by or informed by love.”
When you set your roots down deeply in this living, breathing love, you can move freely and still find your centre, a point of reference and a sense of groundedness and home. We are tiny flickers of a much larger flame. May you find comforting passage through this middle place and come to know that security is acquired through doing the inner work. May you travel earnestly and with tact and sensitivity. Our overarching purpose after all is to build a strong container or identity and then source and retrieve contents for it to hold.
Trust is such a powerful thing and I think you put it into perspective so well – as per usual in your Monday posts! :)) Thanks for sharing Maryam!