Sunday, April 27, 2014

It Is What It Is




When I argue with reality, I lose - but only 100 percent of the time. 

 How do I know that the wind should blow? It's blowing! 
I am a lover of what is, 
not because I'm a spiritual person, 
but because it hurts when I argue with reality. 

 We can know that reality is good just as it is, 

because when we argue with it, we experience tension and frustration. 
We don't feel natural or balanced. 
When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.
Byron Katie *


How do I find peace?
When 'what is' can feel so dark 
When the story seems set
When hopes held dear
Fade
Disappear 
?

Byron Katie stresses that acceptance, and actually LOVE of what is,
does not preclude taking action to bring about change.  
Simply, that it is pointless to argue with the reality that presently exists.
Since, it, in fact, IS.

She also believes that the essence of the Universe is good.  

If we trust that God is Love
That the creational direction of this universe is that of love and goodness
We can know that all is ultimately well

The 'is' that is, is much more than we see.  
Larger, grander
Deep, intense, wild
Wonderful. Beautiful. 

It is the caterpillar in the cocoon, the chick in the egg . . .
 The is that is, holds the promise, the potential, 
the energy of creation which flows beneath the surface always. 
'What is' can feel dark, sterile, motionless, a finished work . . . 
but it is not.

'What is' can appear to lead only to decay and loss.
but, it does not.
That which carries death, 
atrophies and passes.
True life lives on
Shines through
Prevails

We are carried.  
We are Jonah in the dark belly of a fish. 
Moving, though we see not where. 
We are the chick, crushed within the suffocating darkness of the egg.
The caterpillar dissolving, disintegrating
Losing all form, to be reformed into
A beautiful, winged creature
(oh, how I fight this feeling of formlesslness - painful, liquid unknowing)

I may feel that my life is static. 
That I've taken too many 'wrong' turns.
I smell the stench of death . . . 
Fight the darkness that threatens to consume . . . 


yet


Life is an organic thing
Only artificial things never spoil
As I ask all that is not love to die and be gone from me
Can I accept and love
the byproducts of death?
Can I embrace the pressure and pain . . .
the darkness and the discomfort . . .
as the gifts they are?
(Or, evidence of the gift.)


LOVE looks on, and smiles.
Sees beauty shining through the darkness. 
Renewal emerging from dissolution.
Sees the end of the story.

And loves what is.




*http://www.gratefulness.org/readings/bk_noticing.htm

Check out Byron Katie's Work.  Life changing stuff.
http://www.thework.com/index.php

Portions inspired by Dark Nights of the Soul, by Thomas Moore
http://careofthesoul.net/books/