On beauty and grief:
I recently had the pleasure of finishing the book “The Smell of Rain on Dust.” It was a symphony of words that tantalized the senses. It introduced me to a greater awareness of all the buried, unexpressed grief we as a species have suppressed. A few of my friends are experiencing bouts of intense grief. The other day I became aware of a profound grief for financial inequality.
Traveling in India decades ago was an emotional grueling experience for me in terms of witnessing such abject poverty. A scene remains indelibly etched on this brain, of a man with no arms or legs on a low wheeled platform maybe 6 inches high. He was clutching a chalk in his stump and was drawing an extraordinary thing of beauty, I believe it was a person. I never fully allowed the grief of witnessing such poverty in so many third world countries from Guatemala, to India, to Africa, to Burma, to China.
It came roaring out the other day in intense waves of heartbreak. Here is the thing. After all the wars, the poverty, the deaths, the corruption, the manipulation, the financial imbalance, the pollution and climate destruction the corporate greed, I sense we are sitting on a ton of suppressed grief that many of us are beginning to experience. A number of my friends are swamped with anguish, even despair sometimes. Another friend questioned why I would choose to enter “suffering” like that. First, it is not a choice, it just arises. Second it is incredibly beautiful, alive, heart opening, tender, exquisite, connecting, empowering, life affirming. It is the opposite of suffering, it is life affirming. I thank all my friends, all my relations who are willing to go there.
I used to say hell no, it is enough to allow my own grief. Now it is an honor and privilege to burn through this collective distress residing in this one’s cellular memory. It is a thing of wonder. It is a thing of unity, of union as the One.
A deep bow of such appreciation for those who choose to join me. Just today a brother was diving into an open wound and finding exquisite beauty there. What I am discovering is that every emotions, every experience has its own majesty, its own wonder, its own joy if we stay out of evaluation and judgment. Such sweet relief to welcome jealousy, passiveness, uncertainty, doubt, rage home into this vast heart. As part of my abundance challenge, I just wrote a letter of appreciation and gratitude to the person who, at the level of form, hurt me the most. So may tears flowed. Such sweet liberation. This being is full.
