At a workshop I attended earlier this year my friend spoke about the call more of us on the planet are heeding to no longer ‘go with the flow’ in terms of the energy of how we as a people have been choosing to live. He offered beautiful, moving imagery of the struggle of beginning and persevering with swimming upstream, and I often recall this and find that it continually inspires me.
With the increasingly terrible states of violence, disease, addictions, sexism, racism, slavery (human trafficking), poverty, corruption, greed, environmental destruction, anxiety, depression, and the rest of the sprawling list of non-harmonious ways of being on Earth, surely going along as we have been in the illusion of separation is questionable, if not intolerable. While it is easy to feel that great abyss of suffering on the planet, whether perceived internally or externally, the extent of it can be so overwhelming that we may feel powerless that anything we can do will make a real change. Even if one person feels they can make a difference, it can be elusive as to how to put on the brakes, be honest about the extent of the illusion we are in, and resist the momentum that drives us to continue down that same path of ‘so-called’ least resistance over and over again. I say ‘so-called’ as my experience is that going along with the consciousness that is in the illusion of separation feels internally like swimming upstream already, and whoa man, can that current can be strong! But that struggle is in relation to the immense effort it takes to function in that energy of disconnection. The beautiful difference is that the swimming upstream I refer to is the resisting of the temptations that trap us in the consciousness of separation. It is an outpouring from the choice to re-turn and re-connect with the love that we truly and equally are. To live in this way is internally a huge release and surrender, and in my body I feel it as a ‘going with the flow of love.’ Ahhhhhhhh!! Allowing this love to gradually unfold more and more in my body feels amazing. This, I find, requires a constant vigilance, to resist the prevailing choice on the planet to not be connected to the love we are, and so it is quite easy to ‘lose it’, but the choice to re-turn to love is always there. The more we choose it, the more that momentum begins to build in our life and on the planet.
With the increasingly terrible states of violence, disease, addictions, sexism, racism, slavery (human trafficking), poverty, corruption, greed, environmental destruction, anxiety, depression, and the rest of the sprawling list of non-harmonious ways of being on Earth, surely going along as we have been in the illusion of separation is questionable, if not intolerable. While it is easy to feel that great abyss of suffering on the planet, whether perceived internally or externally, the extent of it can be so overwhelming that we may feel powerless that anything we can do will make a real change. Even if one person feels they can make a difference, it can be elusive as to how to put on the brakes, be honest about the extent of the illusion we are in, and resist the momentum that drives us to continue down that same path of ‘so-called’ least resistance over and over again. I say ‘so-called’ as my experience is that going along with the consciousness that is in the illusion of separation feels internally like swimming upstream already, and whoa man, can that current can be strong! But that struggle is in relation to the immense effort it takes to function in that energy of disconnection. The beautiful difference is that the swimming upstream I refer to is the resisting of the temptations that trap us in the consciousness of separation. It is an outpouring from the choice to re-turn and re-connect with the love that we truly and equally are. To live in this way is internally a huge release and surrender, and in my body I feel it as a ‘going with the flow of love.’ Ahhhhhhhh!! Allowing this love to gradually unfold more and more in my body feels amazing. This, I find, requires a constant vigilance, to resist the prevailing choice on the planet to not be connected to the love we are, and so it is quite easy to ‘lose it’, but the choice to re-turn to love is always there. The more we choose it, the more that momentum begins to build in our life and on the planet.
When we begin to swim upstream in this way, we are perhaps timid, or even fearful, as we know that those around us will take notice. Some of our nearest and dearest may mirror the very same doubts we may have within us, take it personally, or simply may think we have gone mad! “What’s up with you?” Why are you going that way?” “It is so much better/easier/more comfortable this way, what are you doing?” “Have you gone crazy?” “Why are you rejecting me/us?” “I don’t understand you!” Such reactive responses play on our deep fears of being outcast, isolated, misunderstood, alone and persecuted. When faced with this reflection of doubt and reactivity, it can be seemingly easier to say ‘forget it’, and let the pull of the collective consciousness take you back downstream. We may do this over and over and over again before we have a strong enough reference point of our own love that can act like that rock in the river that we can hold on to when the current is strong, and then continue to swim upstream, for is that not how we return to the source of the river?
RSS Feed
