Standing Out newsletter theme december 2011
~ Standing Out
Watching a 1-year-old child stand up is a revelation.
After lying, rolling, sitting, kneeling, sliding, and crawling for months, to stand up is to trust and cross from one dimension to another. Like a first bicycle ride, a plane taking off, or the proverbial "stepping off a cliff into thin air" that is nearly every step of this spiritual path.
I would like to suggest that we can each play this month with literal and metaphorical standing, standing up, and standing out: ~Rediscover literal standing--just the feet, or the magic of balancing, or the skin as we stand in line, on a bus, at the sink, or on purpose just standing among the trees. We can play around with the process of standing up, and what a radical change of perspective, atmosphere, or even consciousness happens when we literally stand ~"Take a stand" of any kind, including simple moments of not falling into lowest common denominators such as gossip or traffic aggression or a sense of lack/fear. How exposed it is to stand against the stream; how much power is needed at first and available later; and how simple, creative, and needed
~Be open to whatever "stands out." Sometimes magic happens when we are just open and lovingly ready to receive a signal from our surroundings or even from our own mind. We receive a glimpse of someone’s facial expression, and clarity comes through about what is important. One word unexpectedly stands out in a conversation, and everything starts to make sense. We wake up and before we get busy, we know that on long our to-do list, those 3 things are the only things to do, to bear in mind and heart, to treasure.
~Let everything that is held up by pretense, competition, anxiety and fear just fall down and apart. What stands, what lifts up, by itself?