What does it mean, “to miss?” Elspeth asked me that when I said I missed my kitchen, my house, my little cafe. I said that for me, to miss means to remember how it felt to have someone or something and to want to have it again.
Now I know perfectly well that Elspeth is one of the most articulate speakers and eloquent writers of the English language I know. So her question left me unable to move past a nagging in my mind: why did she ask me that?
Her question forced me to face the truth. I wasn’t in the moment. I was not embracing the Now. I was clinging to the past, hence my suffering.
Today I find the same message in almost all the blogs I read daily. The lesson of today is about detachment. Surrender. Yielding to the Flow.
Elspeth, in her aptly named blog Now Is Wow, is talking about letting things go when they are over.
Carla found a dead bat at the bottom of her curly willow, which prompted her to look up Bat Medicine. “When bat appears it is asking you to surrender yourself to the process of change.”
Dove Love’s post about change and about paying attention to the messages around you reminded me to put my antennae up and pay attention to messages and guidance.
Claire is talking about surrender to surprise.
And Patti Digh is talking about being attached to something, and that attachment being the source of our suffering. You can be attached to things or to the past situation, or to being right.
If ever there was a reminder of the transience of the things of this world… last week there was a house where you now see charred rubble.
9 responses so far ↓
dovelove // August 29, 2007 at 9:09 pm |
The Hanged Man. The Bat totem, same message. The bat is the image on the Hanged Man card in the Animal-Wise Tarot (Ted Andrews). Today, spurred by the same post of mine you mention, I reposted some commentary on a thread debating religious beliefs. I compared The Hanged Man to what happened to Jesus. That too, same message.
Just like the bat hangs upside down, the Hanged Man is hanging upside down from a tree. Just like Jesus, there’s nothing this man can do in this situation. He has to surrender to this experience. The Hanged Man is about forgiveness, sacrifice — or “letting go” of one thing so as to acquire somthing better.
That “sacrifice” is invariably necessary to create or draw to us that better thing. Yeah, it’s a bitch, but there’s something powerful about our dangling there from the tree, so vulnerable… Go figure ;) Faith.
Another message in this card, per his position, is to endeavor to look at things differently, from a different perspective. This card represents enlightenment.
I see a reversed or “ill-dignified” messge with this bat…because it was dead, as opposed to being alive :) That is, the person receiving this message is resisting this “letting go” thing.
I see “Tarot cards” in people, things, situations… In this picture of the burned house, I see a message I often get, what I often call, and it’s often presented to me this way — a “9-11″ message. I see the Tower card in this picture.
The image on the Tower card is a perfect depiction of what happened on 9-11. The Tower card is about CHANGE.
Unfortunately, when we get this message, we’ve been resisting change for a long time and now it’s no longer in our hands. Now the Universe is saying, with the Tower message, times up — BAM! A “lightning bolt” from the blue that creates the change that was needed. A house burns, a job is lost, divorce — any difficult or “shocking” change.
Supposedly we received lots of messages about the need for this change, but we just kept ignoring them, and then (I believe) our own “higher consciousness” makes it happen, for our own good.
I’m plenty experienced in those types of changes, it seems I always resist :) I think most people do, it’s damned hard to make that sacrifice. But I always try to remember that in the Tarot, the Star card follows the Tower. And the Star card represents good stuff…after the house burns, we find a better house, after the spouse leaves, we meet someone that we never imagined was out there waiting for us… After the job loss, we start our own biz, living our passion :) … And THEN (and only then, lol) we are so grateful that we had that dreadful Tower experience :)
Hugs,
Dove
Kara // August 29, 2007 at 10:16 pm |
Being a slow blogger it took me a few days to get over here and now I want to read and read and find out more from your blog. I love the name – I see the words and it just makes me smile.
And what an incredible comment Dovelove has sent you! I came to say thanks for visiting and leaving me a comment and thanks for sharing yourself so honestly.
liz elayne // August 29, 2007 at 10:24 pm |
i am letting go of a few things right now and although i feel as though i cannot share the details in blog world, i greatly appreciate reading your words to know i am not alone. thank you for sharing your words and your experience. and for the links that echo the important truth of letting go…
Carla // August 29, 2007 at 11:55 pm |
Just sitting here — laying here — witnessing, wondering, thanking, soaking it in. Appreciating you.
JourneyThroughLife - Annie // August 30, 2007 at 2:51 am |
It is such a simple thought – to let go, to live in the moment, to detach ourselves from the past and be in the now. Yet, I can never seem to get there! I have to keep reminding myself again and again. “That is the past I am thinking of. It no longer exists. I am in the now. The now is better. Let go of the past” Over and over until I am going crazy!! aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Yet, is it getting better and easier each time?? Maybe, just maybe…
Annie
xxx
Elspeth // August 30, 2007 at 5:09 am |
Wow. All those links are so powerful … all ending in one big kaboom! Now really must be a time of new beginnings.
Elizabeth // August 30, 2007 at 3:12 pm |
Not much to say, just that this is a lovely post. I so love reading your blog – so much Love and Truth !
You are a beautiful person :-)
Thanks for sharing. Hugs E
Rick // August 30, 2007 at 6:18 pm |
My goodness! I mean that quite literally: it is my goodness (or luck, or good fortune, or…) to have visited today.
Your post is so densely packed with goodness, light and wisdom that I will revisit this post alone for days (and leaping to follow the links, of course). Already, it is evident that there is more here than one can devour in one sitting (dang…can’t avoid the eating metaphors).
Thanks so much, Kelly!
Annie // August 30, 2007 at 8:27 pm |
Have you ever found that living in the moment is easiest when you are alone? It seems to be so for me. I’ve been thinking about that lately.