I’m sitting in the cafe at which I am a regular these days. When I asked the woman who took my order how she is doing, tears came to her eyes. She told me that she just found out one of her family members is in the hospital with a brain bleed. “He’s young. They just had a baby.” Long pause. “I can’t talk about it. I just have to keep doing the next thing in front of me.”
I had immeasurable compassion for her. I longed for her freedom to cry, to be held, to be able to fall back into herself and let go.
I sat down at my table and thought about her words some more. “I just have to keep doing the next thing in front of me.” I find great wisdom within these words.
Life is beautiful and strange. All-day long we are invited to engage in the fluctuation of juxtaposed extremes. We execute mundane tasks. We search our hearts and souls. We reflect. We long for things. We drink in what is around and inside us. We put one foot in front of the other. We zone out and dip into imagination. We laugh. We cry. We feel nothing. We feel everything. We think. We try to know. We don’t know. We harden. We soften. We hold on. We let go.
These extremes that we face are not punishments or enemies, they are the sweet invitations of our humanness. Summoned to trust our most original relationship to openness, every point in time becomes an opportunity to freely expand and learn what we are capable of. Instead of our moments becoming unnecessary battles between “this” or “that,” we have infinite chances to become more practiced at being fluid and free. As we become more fully conscious of our vast nature, we can behold our unfurling selves and exist gracefully in the center of all the tensions of what is possible.
I am grateful for so many occasions to bow down to the present moment and all of its unique wonders. I think maybe this is why we are here, all of us.
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To my friend who inspired this reflection: I send to you and your family abundant Love and compassion. Even in this challenging moment, may a new expansiveness be revealed to you no matter what the journey looks like. May you find room for the totality of your fluctuations and capabilities, newly perceived in this space.