Cycles

One day, a while ago, I found a beautiful blanket in the middle of a lush clearing. It was soft and comfortable and was what I had been looking for. I could now lie down on it to refocus, find my ground, plan the next few steps while looking at the sky, have wonderful picnics with other people who looked equally blissful on their blankets. 

After a while the blanket started to feel uncomfortable and I needed to switch position often, maybe while complaining about it. I was becoming uncomfortably comfortable. All thoughts about looking beyond the blanket, thoughts about getting up to stretch to see what happens were dismissed by the stupor I had fallen into. 

Suddenly the blanket got shaken and together with everything else that I had accumulated on it I was thrown in the air. 

While I was up there, flipping around, I felt tense, confused. I demanded my uncomfortably comfortable blanket back. I tried to speak about how pitiful this situation felt. While up there, I got a glimpse of the blanket still shaking itself off but all my efforts to grab onto it were fruitless. 

While up there, head down and feet up, the perspective changed. What if what I need to do is not get back on the blanket but follow the flow it is shaking me into? It took humility to recognize my stupor and to let go of control to trust the movement that was now directing my fall.

Suddenly my feet touched the ground. It felt soft, I didn’t even realize I had landed. I was standing in a community, with open arms and broad smiles, ready to engage with me. On my shoulder hangs a bag of goodies that got strapped there while I was flipping in the air. 

It is my belief that though the situations we go through in life may differ, the way they work through us is similar. Telling a story might help us make sense of the world and what it brings to us. And so, I ask: 

Do any of the elements in this story resonate with a cycle in your own life? (the blanket, feeling uncomfortably comfortable, the shake)

One of your reactions might be to demand what you believe you are entitled to from the blanket – do you recognize yourself in this description?

One of your responses might be to focus on the sensations being felt while flipping around in the air – can you be the observer of that?

In this unexpected shake, some things have disappeared and some have stayed – do you recognize them?