I am an ordinary woman with an extraordinary hunger, an ache to discover and consciously live the meaning of my life and a conviction that that hunger can only be satisfied by cultivating a deeply spiritual life.
-Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn’t really interest me who is right and who is wrong. What I really want is for people to get along. Somewhere between the right and the wrong is what could work if we had the will to make it so.
It doesn’t really interest me why people do what they do that is harmful to themselves and others. What I really want is for people to get along. To harm one’s self is to harm the All we come from. To harm others is to harm ourselves.
It doesn’t interest me the reasons other people did what they did. What I really want is to not have to suffer for the consequences of their behaviors while they don’t.
The coals of self-criticism sizzle and steam as I struggle to walk without injury to the other side. There I find that I’ve been caught up in the vortex of unreason appearing as reason; punishment appearing as teaching; control appearing as salvation; fearful ness appearing as calm.
Something inside me died on August 19, 2010. I recognize the feelings well as they have surfaced before. Flashes of relationship bob to the front of my awareness. The intensity that has run my life begins to become clearer. That energy was one of judgment that I lived in a world that needed me to fix it. If I didn’t fix things I would die. I faced the reality that I can’t fix this world. Sadly, it never should have occurred to me that was even an option.
In the world of my childhood I was the oldest and I was the responsible one for making sure I did what I was told; whether I liked it or not; whether it was difficult or not; whether I had to sacrifice my voice in silence; whether I had to make the best of a bad difficult situation; whether I attempted the unattainable; whether I had no power or control over others; whether my heart and body ached for comfort, kindness and love and found none; whether I had to be last or not at all; I had to make sure others needs were met whether mine were or not.
I hope this is the core issue that has sabotaged me as I am ready to create and maintain a life of freedom, joy, creative expression, health, wealth, interesting and loving and supportive relationships. I am ready to live from a core of peace, calm, harmony, joy, fun, loving life and willing to give to life. I choose to live my life from my inner wise voice that embraces all of life and calmly, eloquently, and softly speaks her truth. I stay connected to the sacred presence of my soul and that of universal soul which we all come from. I have the power to make the choices to stay connected to this sacred life, rejuvenate my mind, body, and spirit, have plenty of energy and clarity of mind to express this spirit in all of my endeavors in a calm quiet powerfully clear and courageous way.
Woman on the edge is about consciously stopping so you can find the deep stillness that lies beneath the surface of everyday activities and busyness. It is about slowing down and if necessary, stopping the doing to connect with being. In that slowing down you find the way out of the gerbil cage repeating what you don’t want to create a new pathway of your own.
This ache to know more, to grow, to evolve has been with me for as long as I remember. I feel it in my body-mind, emotions, and soul as I write this. My self criticism beats me up for not staying on a straight path. I feel its chains weigh heavy on me, but I let them drop off. I know that the multiple paths I have taken are all part of my spiritual quest to know my self and others. I look back with clearer eyes and see that all my experiences are part of the process of growing me.
I no longer need to feel shame, grief and guilt for my old critical voices berating me about things I couldn’t know, things I didn’t know and not voicing what I did know.
My cultural, family, and human conditioning for good or ill has influenced me in many ways. Some of it has nurtured and supported me and some of it has hurt and disappointed me. My mission has and is to awaken and embrace both. By doing that I am free to create. The heaviness of that critical voice is quieted by the release of its weight and my body feels light and free.
May you open yourself to growth and freedom.