So do you get it? Do you stand in the waves and let them wash over you, releasing what overwhelms so that you can truly see? See the world in all of its glorious and uncomfortable complexity? Do you play the game? Do you know the rules? Is that knowledge overt or assumed? And when it is known – and when you do not agree with the game – do you call it? Do you walk away, or do you assert your own rules, redefining the game? Is each game that you play, a dance that involves two? Two who know the steps because they are walking them through together, refining as they go along?
Are you both alone and engaged? Do you truly embrace who you are, as one person who must like what they see in the mirror before they can share it with others? Do you stand alone in the work that you do, challenging yourself to truth and integrity as you do those around you? And when you care – when you give – is it with no expectation other than what comes back, be freely chosen as such? When you want, do you ask? Do you know what you need and give it to yourself, in as much as you reach out to others?
And when you are overwhelmed, is it your scalpel that you reach for as you flail? Do you stand back to look at the wound in all of its depth, being precise in your incision so that what remains when you are done, will truly heal? Do you reassess your cut, accepting the supporting tools that are handed to you by others? Others whom you know to have their own vision? And do you only move on when you know the work of the moment is done? Do you accept that with your movement more of the wound may reveal itself, but the scar that you have allowed will help you to move with complexity, with your hands and your head and your heart?
Do you accept who you are, as intense or as straight-forward as that may be? In that acceptance, do you leap at what appears before you? Step firmly in each experience? Embrace that which pours out your passion? Accept each moment for the complexity of your choice and the related reality?
And when you dance . . . do you want a partner who likes to step out on their own? Explore their own movement? And then watch you groove too, before they take your hand to move in unison for awhile, knowing the steps to this joined flow because when they look in your eye, all that has passed between you is known . . . and how you see is shared in its individuality and oneness?
Who are you? What do you know? Do you ask? Do you move in a new way that allows for pause and pace so that when you look back you will smile with tears in your eyes at your own strength and bravery, in what you have released . . . in what you have handed to others . . . and what has come back to you, changed by its path?
Keep moving. Stand still. Think. See. Be. Do. Share. Love as feels right, both in yourself and those around you. You are glorious and that is meant to be revealed.
Written Wednesday 7 January 2009, transcribed to a notebook, then sealed. Reopened Friday 5 January 2018.
Bring the Joy 