Saturday, June 18, 2011

moment of mindfulness: walls


Recently, I received wise council from a dear friend. She said, “Elizabeth, put down your guard.” At the time, the words seemed foolish. But over the next couple of weeks, I kept hearing them over and over again. Once I took the advice hardily, an amazing shift happened. I found myself complaining less about external circumstances. I began to recognize, again, that fear is a choice. And that realization allowed me to step into my empowered self. None of this happened overnight, but it was a slow process of recognizing the walls I put up to protect myself because of perceived fears of “what might happen”.

At the same time, I kept listening to this song…



...the words “don’t put your trust in walls because they will only crush you when they fall” reminded me in another way of the false perception of security that we feel when we attempt to separate ourselves from anything. It is an absolute illusion. And honestly, I have to say that I am still learning to feel okay without walls of separation…there is a part of me that wants to run and hide behind something or under something sometimes. But it is useless. The hiding causes more issues than just accepting each and every thing that life throws at you. Just observe it, embrace it for what it is... an opportunity to grow, and then let it go. Whether we hide from or hold onto our fears…we create a world that gives us more to fear. But if we embrace what brings us joy, what makes us feel passionate, what makes us feel connected, we create a world of joy, passion and connection.

Jude and I watched the movie “The secret of Kells” the other night. We had to fast forward through the “scary parts to get to the beautiful parts” (Jude’s words). Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that in life? The secret of Kells is also about fear and magic. The Bishop and villagers are building a giant wall around the village of Kells to protect themselves from the Vikings. The young boy hero of the story is given a mission that requires him to venture out into the dark forest beyond the walls and what he finds there is both dark and magical. His fears become less and less controlling as he discovers the illusions that they really are. And as he does, he becomes empowered and even more so when it becomes apparent that the walls are useless.



Last week, I felt like I too discovered the illusion that my fears were and as I did the walls crumbled. Life has been so much more magical ever since. I am sure that there will be more opportunities to choose fear, but for now I’ll enjoy the magic and joy that the Universe is serving up because I was able to take that first bold step away from my fears and towards love.


3 comments:

  1. Beautiful post. I'm going to search out that movie. I live in Wayland, MA, and fear is surrounding our town these days but also community and love. The father of the girl who was murdered is setting a wonderful example of reaching out even to the parents of her killer.

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  2. beautiful heart stone there at the end...

    missing connecting with all of my blog faves...summer-swept and busy i've been, and making space to connect.

    fear has been showing itself again up my way too, and i keep trampling it down, trying to make it go away, much like the weedy morning glory vine that i keep plucking out of the ground without realizing that every pull sends messages to its' roots to send up more shoots.

    i will embrace my fear and send it on its way...the tried and true way i've worked with it before, much like you described, and i will instead seek out the connection, passion and joy and let that seep through me :)

    thank you for this today...

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  3. i am a little bit in awe of how magically fitting this post is to my day.
    the words, the meaning, the song, the movie, the photo~
    and i am so opening my heart to the crumbling walls and too, what this universe is serving up. YUM!
    thanks for being here :)

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