I’m not trying to convince you of some intellectual idea. I’m simply describing my experience of reality— and I’m asking you if it jives with yours…
Can you feel all the ways in which you’re being held right now? All the ways in which you’re being supported, nurtured, and cultivated?
If not, I’m sure you’re present to all the ways you don’t feel held — the gaps and voids in your field. The support you think you need, but don’t have.
And do you feel yourself holding the unfolding of life? What are you upholding and supporting? What are you holding back and restricting?
At all levels, there’s holding and being held.
Right now, the ground beneath your feet is holding you.
Over time, you’re held by your relationships with your family and friends.
Muscles, bones, blood, and tissue hold you within your body.
The rule of law, commerce, and community holds us together as a society.
The sun, the moon, the planets, and the whole universe hold our beloved Earth in this cosmic dance that we’re all grooving to!
I hold and I’m held.
I contain and I’m contained.
I channel and I’m channeled.
The least I can do is take responsibility for how I hold — for the space or context I create for myself and others, especially my loved ones.
The least I can do is acknowledge and appreciate all the ways in which life, the world, and the people around me are holding me.
To take responsibility for the space I’m creating and to acknowledge all the ways in which I’m being held, I must first open awareness.
Or rather, I need to attend to all that is preventing the opening of awareness, so that I can see how I’m being held and hold what’s mine to hold.
What prevents the opening of awareness is holding too tightly — not allowing life to unfold, and holding too loosely — not holding what’s ours to hold. Both deplete us and drain us of our vitality.
When you look at this situation logically, you might want to let go of what you’re holding too tightly and tighten up what you’re holding too loosely. But there is a third way — you can just let it be.
You can allow.
And you can allow for your not allowing too.
You can trust the intelligence of your own body and the body of the Earth.
You can learn to perceive through a devotional lens and observe that your life and all of life is an offering — a gift!
In 2024 and beyond, my intention is to allow — and to allow for my not allowing too.
Open awareness is who we are. Our way of being determines whether we experience this reality or not.
An aspirational way of being creates tunnel vision and focuses our attention on what we think we want. So often, there is no open awareness.
But there’s nothing inherently wrong with closed focus. The problem arises when this closed focus is not constantly contextualized and re-contextualized.
A devotional way of being gives primacy to allowance — letting life unfold and flow as it is. By living with the questions — what’s holding my unfolding and what’s unfolding, that I’m holding — awareness naturally opens.
By considering and re-considering context, we bring the fullness of our being to bear at every moment.
Which is to say — awareness will open if we simply allow life to unfold.
When we allow, we move into greater wholeness. From this space of wholeness, we respond to the unfolding flow of life with grace.
And that’s the recipe for a life well lived.