Poetic Revelations: When Life Floods In
Aligning with our True Nature
“A mantra is a kind of magic formula that, once uttered, can entirely change a situation. It can change us, and it can change others.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
This is a weekly publication for heart-centered warriors, swimming through this thing called life. Keeping our hearts and voices intact and open.
SELECTED POEMS
In Blackwater Woods, Mary Oliver
For Calling The Spirit Back From Wandering the Earth, Joy Harjo
Dear Embodied Hearts and Dancing Souls,
I missed writing to you last week. As you’ll read below, life is brimming full. It feels a sweet kiss to get back to it now. May reading this feel like a kiss to you as well.
Stories Travel. One Sunday night in my early 30s, I came home late and turned on the television. It was one of those epic movies from the 50’s, Ulysses. By this time, Ulysses was back at home still unbeknownst to his wife. He notices the place is overrun with suitors for his wife and wins the test for her hand. When he is alone with his wife, rather than reveal his identity, they ensue into dialogue that takes place near their marriage bed. The dialogue is a test for marital fidelity.
This immediately caught my attention. Years of exile vanquishing demons, returning home to reclaim your throne, and even then the story doesn’t conclude until fidelity has been tested? I grew up listening to the story of Lord Ram and his Queen, Sita - an epic story that shapes the childhood of most Indians. After being rescued from the demon’s Ravanna’s clutches, Ram’s peeps demand to know if she was still faithful. She proved her virtue by walking through fire. Sita was the OG of proving faithfulness.
Utterly intrigued, I brought it up to a dear friend who has a Doctorate in Linguistics (and now a loyal reader). She nodded her head vigorously. Oh yes, she said, there were trade routes between India and Egypt and then up to Greece. I explained how even today the entire Ramayana is sung. Its the same oral tradition, she explained. These stories traveled on ancient trade routes through skilled storytellers. And, local storytellers adapted the story for their audiences.
To me, its the same story. Stories travel. People move. You can hear the movement in languages. When doing development work in India, dialects morphed on a spectrum between Bihari and Bengali (the state to the East) perhaps every 20 miles or so.
The Great Flood. The Great Flood is another story that has traveled - Manu in India, Noah in the West. Over Thanksgiving on the Oregon coast, we were alerted to “sneaker” waves — waves that come in so fast you have no place to run. A week later, I woke up from a dream with fast, rising water. In it, walking on a country road, I turned to see a thin film of water rising in an expanse on the horizon. I felt fear and ran.
My life currently has much momentum. Life is flooding in and I am experiencing some overwhelm. When I make things about failing in my work place, I respond to life with some emotional and mental fear. Yet its not the truth of my natural state.
The overwhelm itself is a subconscious response rooted in a fear that I am responsible for it all. This fear typically makes me behave in controlling ways–I take on way more work for myself than I need to and get annoyed when others don’t behave the way I want. (imagine!)
“To Love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love.” T. Nhat Hahn
What is more interesting is noticing the opposite. Each night I have started to take time to look back up to the stars and consciously ask to Receive all that is available for me right now in my Field. Right away, my body (and mind) relaxes and my heart fills up with golden light. By the next morning, more Light floods in, helping me see how to organize the information and people, finding the pathways through. I can even start feeling juiced by what’s in this story for me.
Receiving lets me be honest about the one thing my fear doesn’t let me admit: that I’m not in control. When I accept this, I lighten up. I naturally gravitate toward work that lifts me up, and let go of the work that doesn’t.
Stepping into Alignment. The truth is, putting our energy into controlling is still the path of Efforting. And it feels like it. Its out of alignment with the natural Joy already in our hearts that is ready to guide us.
When I let myself align my Mind with the Natural Joy that already lives into my body, I am like a unified radar signal or laser beam. My Conscious Identity is Remembering who I really am–connected to Source, Love and Light. In reciting a mantra, all of me is consciously choosing to allow these forces to act/work on my behalf. This is the power of a mantra. Master Hahn completes his quote above with this:
But this magic formula must be spoken in concentration, with body and mind focused as one.
One of my favorite things to do in my One-on-Ones is listen to the Alignment your Being has available for you. I listen to it and guide you to that alignment, to your mantra. Oh what is possible in this state!
“Mantra” it self is made of two root words: man or mind and tra or tool. But guess what? Man (the root word for my name) has two meanings. I grew up listening to my father explain the meaning of my name. “What is the mind, he would ask, “but the heart?” This is the full journey in my name, Monisha. On one hand it means, Master of the Mind, or scholar. On the other, it means Goddess of the Heart. I walk the spectrum in between the two.
Admitting I have no control is liberating and scary. I do not know what is going to happen next. But I am excited to synch in with the larger forces working on my behalf and learning to ask myself what I want.
Stay #heartwoke. To your exquisite unfolding,
Monisha
NOTES:
Dance Chapel is ON tonight, 12/05/2023
Re-read this. You are a Goddess of the Heart, and Mind. I feel them both when you lead dance chapel!
Always such beautiful reminders