Know when to flap and when to glide,
That’s how to flow with Life.

The real school is out there, among the birds and the bees and the wind and the rain. And once again my observations have taught me something precious and powerful. If we are to flow with Life, then we must surrender and accept. But this is not passive acceptance. This is not giving up and being blown about by the wind anywhere. It’s still about applying efforts, but doing so at the right time, in the right way.

When you need to flap, flap! When it’s time to develop your spiritual muscles, push on through your obstacles. Be sensitive to changes in situations, and be ready to glide (and I don’t know how I resisted this rhyme in the poem) and enjoy the ride!

“We must be willing to think differently about any given person, situation or circumstance.”

This is where freedom lies, in being flexible with our thinking. Re-interpreting events, changing perspectives… it’s a creative process that can literally change our lives. Our thoughts translate into our actions. Suppose I see you, and I’ve seen you every day for the last year. You’d probably say I knew you well, but how can I really know who you are? We are so infinite, we have the capacity to be anything, do anything, think anything, and though much of us is written all over our faces and our bodies, much of us is hidden, even from those who are looking. The difficulty is actually even more profound, because I can only see you as well as my eyes (and mind) allow. Chances are I’ll see what I want to see, see what I expect, and be blind to things I do not like or cannot get along with. What I believe will impact my perception filters. If I’m caught up blaming you for your lack of generosity with me, I might assume that is how you always are and be blind to any displays of generosity you bestow on others (and even on me, if I can explain it away as something other than generosity - duty, guilt, etc.).

Zen masters talk of the need to return to being like a child, innocent and fresh, without ideas of who we are seeing or what we are seeing. They call it “Beginner’s Mind”. So that’s what it’s all about really. Being willing to see the people you think you know afresh, as if you have never seen them before, or as if you don’t actually know all there is to know about them (because in all likelihood you don’t!). This gives you the freedom to change and grow rather than getting into locked ideas and stagnation.

The same applies not just to people, but to situations. Even if you think you know something, of have a definite idea about something, be willing to think differently. Be forever open to new ideas and interpretations. What once was seen as bad often comes around to be something of value (the illness that forced you to learn all the subtle ways you were defeating yourself with negative thinking, for example). Even if it seems you’re in a bad place, maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re right where you need to be. Or maybe it’s something good that turns out to be bad. You win the lottery, you think your troubles are over, but soon you have new problems, people begging for money, expecting you to pay for everything, perhaps you have worries about losing the money, or maybe you thought it would make you happy and it didn’t.

And what about yourself? This is perhaps where the rewards will be immediately obvious. You might think you’re not talented, that you aren’t outgoing, that you aren’t a good singer or public speaker. But then, maybe you are. Don’t be so quick to label yourself, and experience the freedom that brings.

And finally, what brought this insight to me in the first place. Be willing to think differently about the world around you: the earth, the sky, the spirits all around, even God. Perhaps then you’ll come to know why some people call Life the Big Mystery.

“Shadow cannot be thought about, it must be experienced.”

We all have shadows, those parts of us which we hide away and deny, that inevitably come out and mess with us when we least expect it. We see red, and anger comes and leaves us wondering what happened, what possessed us, and leaves us with much apologizing to do, for example.
It is easy to marginalize parts of us, perhaps that hedonist part of you that likes to party regardless of the consequences. Or the intellectual, who if you let out would surely alienate you from all of your friends who prefer sporting banter over a pint of beer. We can hide both our bad points and our good. There is much treasure to be found in shadow.

So, for healing, it is good to delve into this shadow aspect of ourselves and bring out the riches we have put away, for whatever reason. If nothing else, all this denial saps our energy.

The tricky thing is, by their nature the things in our shadows are difficult to see. They hide in the darkness, and may only be glimpsed out of the corner of your eye. So their discovery really isn’t an intellectual exercise. You can’t just think about your shadow and expect it to appear.

Even now, as I write about it, I can’t quite get to the point of it. Shadow is elusive. All you can do is be willing to see, and wait for what comes out.

Oh Great Spirit,
Spirit of Life,
I surrender to You.

I have often taken surrender to be giving up, quitting, or falling into apathy. But real surrender involves surrendering to Life, and far from being kicked around by the fickle whims of fate, it is actually about surrendering our sense of separation, and living as a part of Life itself. So each time you have any doubts about the value of surrendering, remember that the thing you are surrendering doesn’t have any real value.