Crossing the Divide
She walks, as if from a dream, into your life,
ribboned hair unraveling, brown eyes
like cups of tea, come to whisper
a secret into your trembling ear.
You try hard not to listen, clinging
to your calendar, your achievements,
your loneliness, until the silver ache
of it all spreads through your limbs
and she holds out her hand across
the ravine, and you see how the chasm
is not empty, but filled with a rushing
river, and you can swim until
you become fish and flow, until
you are the ancient stream
emerging from stone,
until her face becomes yours.
Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of Wild Grace
Dearest monks and artists,
This poem is about all those places inside of us where we feel divided, especially when the planning and achievement-oriented part of ourselves encounters the part of us that invites us into a more organic and spacious relationship to life. We might feel it is an either/or, but there is always a pathway of both/and. We can hold the gifts of the left-brain and the right-brain together.
Does the creative life ever feel far away from your reach? Do you ever feel like you have settled into a pattern of doing and have forgotten a rhythm of being?
See if you might reach for the hand extended to you across the perceived chasm between your different parts. The point is to fall freely into the river’s flow until you are carried to a new awareness of what is possible in your life.
I invite you to read the poem first slowly, then watch the video twice with a soft gaze. See what moments especially shimmer for you. When do you recognize a part of yourself? Listen for how you are being invited through this prayer into a new awareness.
We are at a turning point in the year as well where the days will become shorter or longer depending on where you are on this beautiful Earth. Give yourself the gift of some time of retreat and reflection. As the world shifts, what might shift within you?
If you are in the Northern Hemisphere and want to read about the Summer Solstice please click here >>
If you are in the Southern Hemisphere and wish to read about the Winter Solstice please click here >>
With great and growing love,
Christine
Video credit: Morgan Creative
