40 Days of Peace Day Nine
Make space for LOVE
Did you know that the birch tree “sheds its skin” ? Yep! Just like a snake sheds her skin as she grows, so does the birch tree. It stretches and expands and the bark falls off to make room for new growth! Nature is pretty awesome… and here She goes again, revealing a huge lesson for us humans.
What does it look like for me, to make space for growth?
How do I make space for ME?
What do I have to release?
How do I shed my skin?
What am I holding onto so tightly that needs to go to make space?
What have I defined myself as that no longer serves my highest good?
I am ready to take off my mask and shed my skin!!
A wise person knows when to “quit”
I am not a big fan of the motivational line “quitters never win and winners never quit”. That line of thinking comes from a competitive / “success is winning” kind of thinking. Of coarse, we don’t want to “give up” on things that serve our highest good. BUT, tuning in and listening to our Inner Teacher helps us know when its time to quit something that no longer serves us. I rather like to think of us all cheering each other on. If you feel you need to quit something because its not good for you and doesn’t bring your Soul joy… quit!
We can hold too tight to our identity and who we’ve come to believe we are. We can hold so tight to who we “think” we’re suppose to be.. for our parents, our partner, our kids, our boss, even ourself. If this identity comes from anywhere other that our own Inner Self that is aligned with the Divine, it is most likely a mask. And its so easy to do! I put on mask after mask to hide my trauma when I was younger. I disconnected so far from myself, I just hovered above watching my “other self” living my life. In order to even begin to heal, I had to learn how to start peeling away the masks to find myself again.
Our truth is in alignment with our purpose
The secret in letting go
Letting go is a process. When I lost my house I did the reasonable thing and rented a storage unit to store all my lovely possessions. That ol’ storage unit helped me learn the art of “letting go”.
At that time, I was deep in grief, self loathing, feeling like a total failure/loser mom… all the things were coming up after I got sober from big pharma and actually started to feel and see my life. The aftermath of hurricane Sarah was staring at me in a storage unit filled to the tippity top with all our “stuff”.
On days when I was feeling really shitty about myself… you guessed it… I would drive on over to Johns Island and take a trip down memory lane. Maybe I thought there was something in there that I really needed. Or, maybe I would just go and raise the door and have a good cry session. Seems so silly now but at the time, that storage unit was a full on image of my “failures” in every sense.
When we finally got our little apartment, we went to unpack the storage unit I’d been paying for all those years. And guess what? I didn’t want or need most of that stuff anymore! I had started to let go of the old Sarah and my past life… in order to make room for my NEW LIFE and the NEW SARAH… and if you could have told me then what grand adventures we would have once I just let go and dove into the flow of my life… I would have LET GO a whole lot sooner!
Who I “thought” I was completely shifted and I started to find MY passions again. The voice inside me wasn’t caged anymore and she started to come out to play… and lead me to my TRUTH.
Travel light… BE LIGHT
We are still learning how to “travel light” but we sure have lightened the load over the years. We lived in a friends airstream for a while in our friends yard and we truly loved that little airstream. It was our silver cocoon where we did a lot of soul work and healing.
It was one of the most painful times in our lives because of the circumstances that led us to live here, BUT, in this silver castle on wheels, we grew so much and discovered how to shed our skin and live simply. We took only what we needed which was hard for two sentimental artists. But it became magic… one of the most magical times we’ve had despite it also being one of the most painful times.
There is a trail on the marsh that I know by heart.. When the hard stuff would come up and I’d feel the bark of my being expanding and pressing into me, I would walk around the marsh, over and over and over, shedding my birchwood mask… and I’d leave it there in the water for Mama Nature to take for me.
She taught me how to travel light so that I could one day bear the Light by Her side.
Love the past and the future you
When we hold so tightly to our identity and our beliefs and past experiences… we don’t leave any space for growing. When traveling, we’ve learned not to fill your suitcase all the way. If its too full, how will have room to bring home something new? And everyone knows when we travel we find something new to bring home.
When I struggle with my “beliefs” or what I think is true. When a new idea is introduced to me… I sit in meditation (contemplative prayer) and I picture a cup full of all the things I have been taught or have come to believe. Then I empty the cup completely. I go into my quiet space and ask for Truth to be revealed. And then I ask my questions.. Truth shows up. I get this feeling of “inner knowing” that gives me peace.
As I leave behind a part of me that no longer aligns with my truth I have learned to say “I love you” and not judge the old Sarah. I judged her enough.
BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF
A baby can’t drive a car.. that would be super silly! We can’t expect to grow up over night and have all the answers. AND there’s no magic pill. I already went down that path. Healing and growth take time and patience and most importantly… they require LOVE! Please be patient with yourself and LOVE yourself through your journey.
If your 40 days takes you 6 months… awesome!
This journey is about you and ONLY YOU CAN SET THE PACE.
Shams of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love
Rule 9
East, west, south, or north makes little difference. No matter what your destination, just be sure to make every journey a journey within. If you travel within, you’ll travel the whole wide world and beyond.
one day we’ll shed our skins… “Rainbow Warrior” Amber Lily
Provided to YouTube by CDBaby Rainbow Warriors · Amber Lily Amber Lily ℗ 2016 Amber Lily Released on: 2016-04-27 Auto-generated by YouTube.
