Deep Alchemy: Loving What Is/Envisioning What Can Be
March 10, 2007 — rickjarowThe challenge of time will not be resolved by “scheduling tips” and the like, just like money problems are generally not solved by money. What is needed is a deep alchemical shift in our approaches to our comings and goings. Here is one of the major shifts that I am working on. I would love some feedback on this:
Deep Alchemy: Loving What Is/Envisioning What Can Be
On one hand, in order to manifest our heart and soul’s vibrancy and reality in the world, we are asked to hold a “healed vision” of what can be. Without a healed vision, be it of health, finances, or relationship, we keep recreating disease by focusing on what is not working instead of what can work.
On the other hand, however, we are being asked to love what is, to acknowledge what is, what really is underneath us, inside us, in front of us. We are asked to release our habitual denials and fantasy projections. To see, for example, that “I am x amount of dollars in debt,” instead of waiting for some imaginary scheme to pay off.
Might it be possible to fuse these opposites? Can we allow and fully be with “what is” while simultaneously holding a vision of what could be? I sense this possibility, and I sense that the keys to it are gratefulness for what is, and fully feeling what is, as opposed to reacting, judging, or “fixing,” but feeling “what is” so deeply that “what can be” spontaneously arises from its energy. Any responses?
IRLL,
Rick
March 12, 2007 at 2:37 am
I believe the only way we can move forward to our dreams, goals or even fantasies is to be as fully present with our reality as possible. By not owning the reality of our present moment we are denying our ability to fully accept who we are. Everything I am, including the physical or emotional challenges that I have either overcome or am working on integrating into myself, has brought me to this very moment. I spent a lot of my life denying my reality, both past and present; then I spent a number of years wondering why my body was apparently attacking me. When I made the decision to step out of my high pressure job and away from a relationship that was draining, I also decided to change my life and to slow down. The doctors were confounded by my recovery, but I knew the truth; it wasn’t amazing. I could choose to be the woman who was physically limited, and continue to be a woman who did not know her heart or soul and doubted if she even had one. When I started down the path of acceptance I started regaining my health. I needed to accept the reality of what is and integrate it with my dreams of what could be. I can’t do everything I used to, but nobody meeting me over the past two years has any idea that I was seriously ill and (to a great extent) physically disabled. Is everything perfect now, no. I am at a new place of struggle and acceptance, and I suspect this just may be the way life is lived. But I know that it is possible to integrate what is with what is wanted; and more importantly I know that only time will bring us to the place we want be.
Time doesn’t fly, the same 24-hours exist in every day, that hasn’t changed over millenniums. As long as we try and do everything we will do very little. Take the time to breathe deeply, take two or three breaths before you answer the phone, the caller will still be there.
Just stop for a minute when you are walking, even in the heart of the concrete towers of commerce, and look at the buildings, see their beauty, look up and see the sky, remember why these buildings were called skyscrapers.
What children have is the ability to stop and look and wonder, when we take that 30-seconds or minute to see and wonder we recapture our true connection with all that is, and have the time to live fully.
Kathleen
March 13, 2007 at 7:15 pm
am new to the blog. happy to know it is up.
I tend to find that acceptance of what my current reality is PRECEDES the visioning process. sometimes acceptance alone does the trick and i find myself actually living a vision …. that was my experience of healing from a chronic pain condition.
March 14, 2007 at 2:37 am
Thanks for your response Kathleen, I found it very helpful. I thought it was insightful that both Kathleen and Daisy stressed the importance of acceptance of the present condition in order to heal.
In response to Rick’s posting, I began working with these concepts because for me the best way to process an idea is to apply it. My first application was not to the issue of time – which I hope to get to – but I wanted to work first with the concepts of a “healed vision” and “being fully with what is” on a more tangible or specific event in my life.
I recently organized a meeting of fellow teachers within my organization to share ideas, build mutual support and plan for the future, and it went badly to say the least. The individuals involved have tremendous talents and backgrounds, but the egos, the personal problems and the strong personalities involved caused division, confrontation and pettiness. (We had an expression where I used to work whenever we tried to organize a group of self-important people, “It’s like herding cats!”) One individual even told me that she absolutely would not attend another meeting again with this group. I gave up figuring that I tried, but it didn’t work. However, I was bitter and disappointed because this is a group that should have common objectives and an interest in supporting one another.
In thinking about a “healed vision,” this group came to mind, and I began thinking about what a healed vision would be for this group. In working with it, I saw a set of individuals with amazing talents, education, experience and personal strength. (The group includes a 78-year old school teacher with over 50 years of experiences and two PhDs, people with business experience, teaching experience, a young African American man with a Masters degree in International Relations and experience in teaching in the inner city NY schools, etc.) The healed vision is very powerful and enticing because I see a group that if the members of that group truly collaborated and channeled their collective energy, they would create a tremendous force in support of education, diversity and creativity – a force badly needed within our organization and the communities where we work.
This process created a conviction within me that there is too much to gain to let the negative stuff get in the way. It gave me back my personal energy that I was losing towards the bitterness of the experience. The healed vision itself gives me energy.
I was skeptical about whether this process would really help improve the situation. However, over the last few days, ideas have been coming to me on how to pursue this goal – ideas that seem generous and wise (as opposed to ideas that would promote my own ego or personal need to “fix” the situation). Equally important, I seem to have gained the energy and motivation to follow through with them. So, we’ll see. But so far, the process has worked amazingly well and in the sense that I feel more complete and at peace with situation and the work at hand.
March 18, 2007 at 1:30 am
Recently, I saw an Indian woman on television describing the Christian gospel where the apostles are out all day and can not catch any fish.They return to the shore and are told by Christ to go out again and put down their net on the other side of their boat. Reluctantly, they agree to go out again and discover that their net is so full of fish that they can hardly pull them in.
She described the need for us to put our own nets down on the other side of our boat to find abundance.
In my own case I realized that the interests of the ego in a project that I was doing was bringing up an empty net, but when I focused on the social need of my project, it resulted in an abundant “catch of the day”.
Joseph
March 24, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Someone has said, “True contentment is not found in having what you want, but in wanting what you have.” A lot of truth in that.
April 6, 2007 at 12:24 am
OK. I’m going to go with “putting my arms around what is…” (or something like that). I will face it fully.
LOVING what is… is a lot to ask. I cannot get my arms around loving what is happening in Iraq (or wherever).
And I walk a line between “facing it fully” and “falling into hopeless abyss.”
Or, at least, I try to walk that line.
I’ve been thinking about this post since March 10 - for almost a month now - and I keep coming back to CONSEQUENCES. It’s about accepting the consequences of choosing to alter my behavior. The consequences strike me as a large piece.
I’m going to choose less work (or different work) and more time with my daughters and I’m going to pay a price - literally. And there is also the subterranean aspect in our society of that choice. I am likely to be ostracized from the mainstream.
I’m going to elect not to participate in a certain religious/social annual function and the in-laws are not going to understand and I will have to stand up to those consequences (and repercussions).
This CONSEQUENCES piece is something I find myself thinking a lot about.
Thanks and peace,
- R
April 6, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Yes, I can see the paradox of freedom from fantasy and concrete manifestation. After all, without some attachment to the fantasy…why should it come true at all??? Is it even necessary or useful???
In human relationships, I believe that it is evolutionarily productive for each individual allow him or her self to enjoy the process of their own imagination COMPLETELY, with full awareness that it is exactly that…Your own beautiful mind and spirit. In that moment, you are actually living it.
(no matter how far you have moved away from TRUST, let it return to you)
What this does is allow other people in your life to see themselves and their own possibilities…What a gift. Always be first to grant true freedom to your friends and family.
Essentially, this question brings up process/product issues.
Human beings are dynamic, recipricol, and flow oriented. We create things that are rigid, structural, and sustaining. We need to be able to see the difference between what we are and what we make…
Nature is both. It is integrated. It can be confusing.
We have to choose for ourselves what aspects to focus our attention on, and know that we can live with our own conscience and consciousness, come what may.
Living as HONESTLY as possible is always key, it helps you return faster…If you seek anything at all, first seek your own honest heart.