From avoiding pain to inviting beauty
Dear Soul,
Photo by Aaron Burden
Dear Soul,
Sometimes, focused on the pain I wish to avoid, I go blind to the beauty that invites my surrender. When the avoidance of suffering is my only compass, I am turned away from truth.
Yes, my breath opens when discomfort lessens, but this is not yet the Promised Land. This does not yet mean I will know the taste of joy. If this respite is the only treasure I prize, I have grown quite small indeed - and the universe is vast.
Fixated on what I wish to leave behind, the possibilities ahead of me are hidden from view.
Yet, even if pain persists, when I turn towards potential, my body comes back to life.
The future never arrives, but my predictions for tomorrow compose the exact tone of what I feel today. My wildest dreams need not come true, they only must be fully dreamed.
What matters most is how the kingdom of my imagination expands along with my belief that I deserve to imagine what pleases me.
In this posture, the tone of my whole being opens. My joints function more smoothly as I move and my muscles find a more precise grip on the situation.
It becomes easier to attend to other’s needs, easier to love.
Thank you for your patience, dear Soul. It took so long for me to see how this radiant ecstasy lives just below the surface of every moment.
I saw it just now, looking out the kitchen window.
Waking up to this world, colors pop more brightly in my eyes, the surfaces of objects press forward with more distinction. I relax more fully to the caress of a breeze, the fallen leaves spiraling in its wake and the lonely barking of a hungry canine outside his master’s door.
As my eyes, ears and pores become more habitually open, I tune to frequencies previously imperceptible, my childhood spirit reawakening. When I follow your lead, dear Soul, we play not to win, but to test the possibilities. I follow you here, where life tastes sweet, to this fount of nourishment that overflows with invitations to participate.
Dear Soul, please wake me should I fall asleep again, should I allow these colors to fade, if my only offer in the face of pain is my desperate wish to “get this over with.”
If ever you hear me say that it is better to be numb than to be alive, please dash my face with ice cold water and clap your hands in my ears.
Show me again how beauty always offers me her beautiful hand.
Help me lift my eyes to the horizon again so that the weight of my head may regain its dignity of support and I may recover clarity in my point of view. Let the strength of the ground surge into me, rising up through my legs and the length of my spine.
Invite my lips to part, my eyes and my ears to open. Allow my belly to drop and my chest to expand because I no longer believe it is not permitted to do so.
Kiss me, dear Soul, as I kiss the surface of your mirror. Let me taste this wine, fermented by this lifetime, the infinite receptivity of this world which loves me and invites me to love it back.
Somatic Inquiry is a practice of deep listening designed to take you below the level of your thinking mind and into your body where your compass is always oriented towards well-being.
You are a beautiful writer and a beautiful human with a beautiful soul!