“The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.” – Heraclitus
“Reclaiming ourselves usually means coming to recognize and accept that we have in us both sides of everything. We are capable of fear and courage, generosity and selfishness, vulnerability and strength. These things do not cancel each other out but offer us a full range of power and response to life. Life is as complex as we are. Sometimes our vulnerability is our strength, our fear develops our courage, and our woundedness is the road to our integrity. It is not an either/or world. It is a real world. In calling ourselves “heads” or “tails,” we may never own and spend our human currency, the pure gold of which our coin is made.
But judgment may heal over time. One of the blessings of growing older is the discovery that many of the things I once believed to be my shortcomings have turned out in the long run to be my strengths, and other things of which I was unduly proud have revealed themselves in the end to be among my shortcomings. Things that I have hidden from others for years turn out to be the anchor and enrichment of my middle age. What a blessing it is to outlive your self-judgments and harvest your failures.”― Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal
Complicated, real, messy, beautiful life.
Unfolding and unfurling.
Stasis and motion.
Dark and light.
Slow and fast.
Sweet and salty.
Desert and oasis.
Sunrise and sunset.
And all of the in-between where we reside most.
For grace and sense to outlive self-judgement, harvest failure, walk with awe, dance with wonder, grow and deepen, and love well.
Pure gold.
“It is not that we have a soul, but that we are a soul.”― Rachel Naomi Remen