It strikes at different moments, often, as a surprise. You are standing or perhaps, placed in a situation and suddenly, you experience a realization that what you are witnessing is “something” big. It’s something, that is being revealed to you. You feel it deep down and somehow you know it’s very significant and just for you.
It could have been a different day and you would not have noticed it. It could have been just a moment before or after and you would have missed it all together. It could have been any variable, but there in that moment you and it, the circumstance, the people, the time, the place, everything converges right there on the spot and It Hits Home!
That lead in is the framework for this writing that arose today. Having been saturated with deep inner stirrings and the being drawn inward. It could be the melancholic nature that I have seemingly favored through much of this life journey. It could be the high sensitivity to perceive and feel into the world all around me. It could be that a Joy so great that it about busts my soul seams just wants everyone to experience this season in this way. Whatever, It is, it is simply there and pronounced during this season.
I am well-aware and understand that there is much in our world that easily spirals downward and out of control, to the point that one could reason what is the point of Life. I, like many, I have traveled to those dark, barren and starving places within myself. I came up from it, alive; and by doing so, can easily detect it in its many forms and even from a distance. I am no stranger to it; and it is no enemy either. I suppose that I have made a peace with it.
For many this season holds a great amount of suffering. For many, it is a time of year that seems to escalate a pervasive loneliness, an immeasurable void that appears inpossibly unfillable. Rather than allowing myself to be swallowed up and dominated by all that pain, I realized that I was stronger, that I could face it and not shrink back, that I could perceive into the desolate, the ugly and the wicked, and see their distortions of beauty and Love.
None of this occurred overnight. None of it came all at once. None of it was easy. None of it was without it hitting home and connecting the dots within myself. In this way, that energy that could deface life was transformed to a greater access of my power. This, I write, to allow it to flow out to you at this particular time of the year, during this season, and add to the Joy and truly the Goodwill of all humanity, to add to the connections we are with one another.
For purposes of “hitting home” and expanding consciousness, let’s take a quick romp through our closet of memories. Mind you, pass through it as if you were going through some of your wardrobe and glancing at it with no selection made, just sliding the hangers over, examining what you can take out, and making room for what you replace.
Who has not experienced loneliness, the child that waits for someone to care for them through the eyes of understanding, feeling displaced within their own family, in a school, a university, an office, a job that demanded untruths of one’s self and/or exclusion, the tear-wet empty nest of the parent’s that created their entire life out of their children’s lives lost in the shadows of memories, the wandering distant eyes of the elder who has no one to share their wisdom with, the rocking of the sack like figure huddled in the corner of a building doorway and the bowels of the subways, the countless candle vigils of those who left “much too early” for incomprehensible tragedies, the life that was built up like a golden civilization and brought down to dust, the countless hearts bearing inconceivable conditions faced alone, the belly wrenching pangs, wild-eyed fear, of death itself. Whatever it was that came to be, it exists. It lives.
But, this, lives, too, right now, three ways to respond to any and all those dark places serving to move us now, expand our consciousness, embrace them, forgive them, and even to Love them. Now, back to the closet you were browsing through. You might say that these three ways to respond are a one size fits all type of garment you can don anytime. You can stop browsing and selectively place your attention here.
First, and foremost, this one has been around for as long as you can remember, but it may have been pushed to the back of the closet. This one is the relationship you have with You. Slip it on and notice not it, but that you may warrant tailoring yourself with the kind of time you give to you. Give time, to understand you, your needs, your care, your trust, your faith, your Love.
If you are experiencing those dark places in yourself, note it and that there is no right or wrong. Staying in a dark closet or opening the door, the drapes, the blinds, will all distinctly offer ways to be free. Whether it’s you or you are witnessing another in the deep trenches of suffering, You can get involved. There are endless ways to get connected regardless if you perceive yourself to be an introvert or extrovert. No one is ever left behind. You can raise your hand to be lifted and you can be the hand that reaches out, but ultimately, we decide when we have had enough suffering. That is a sacred understanding that, individually, must be done within. Uncomfortable? you think? But, remember this consolation, remember it’s a one size fits all kind-a-item and once you try it on, your memory will start to come back from it having sat in the back of the closet collecting all those negatively charged ions. No worries, didn’t you know that air purifiers are really built in?
Thirdly, as in a trinity, It comes to Presence. Whether it’s about you developing the relationship with yourself so, that you can be more Present for you and therefore others, this is your go-to, unfailingly and forever with you. It has always been in your closet, whether you noticed it or not. It will always be in your closet because it is a permanent garment. It IS in your closet right Now. It never gets old and it always hits home!
It is the moment that you are inspired with exactly what you need to do because you are being in the moment. It allows you to respond accordingly because you, whatever the situation, the condition, and It, Presence, are connected and One. Whatever you do of Love is for Love and of Love we make room for more consciousness to expand. Let not the appearances in any mirror deceive you. Adjust your view, your perception, your light and see just what a new understanding of perfection is. It is the I in you, the You in me. It is how we come to experience connection with others through ourselves, through our home.
May this season hit home with you that you, too, may offer home for everyone and everything, for us all to feel just how connected we all are. In this way may we all come to experience the Joy of when it hits home!
