Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to, don’t try to see through the distances, that’s not for human beings. Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move. Today like every other day we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. – Rumi

Sometimes fear can twist us up until we come to a place where there is no more doing. We are at a standstill, a place where there is no energy left to try and fix things. There are no more connections to make, no lessons to learn, no guilt or joy about what we’ve done or haven’t done. There are no more courses to chart, destinations to reach, no plans to make, or errands to run. Suddenly we have nothing left to give, or maybe it is more accurate to say we have arrived at a different way of doing, a way of doing that requires us to stop doing so damn much. This unusual place we sometimes find ourselves can feel frightening in its foreignness. This place pushes us out of our own way so we can participate in our life in a more expansive and authentic way. It calls for us to accept the totality of who we are in this moment, even if everything is a mess. The trick is slowing down enough to recognize what life is offering us in the moment, and this requires a sacrifice. We have to sacrifice our control, all that we force or fear. We’re asked to be open and honest, and that’s impossible if fear has its death grip on us.

This numinous world of non-doing asks us to be just as we are, no hype, no pretense, no faking. Living in the world this way opens us up to possibilities we never knew existed, imbuing our life with deeper meaning. It asks for the truth, but the truth can be terrifying, it forces us to constantly shift our thinking and our lives around. What was true for us 20 years ago is probably long extinct. It’s easy to get comfortable and change can be so inconvenient we often end up living our life on auto-pilot. We cling to what has been for no logical reason other than it made us feel safe at one time. Then comes the big surprise, one day it is no longer enough. That’s when our truth comes in to save us from ourselves if we’ll listen. Following what we love is a sure step in the right direction. The truth of what we love strips away all the artifice and leaves us with who we really are. When we can accept where we find ourselves in the moment, in our bodies, in our lives, we finally open to the moment of what really is and magically it’s just right.

This does not always equate to instantaneous happiness. There are trials in life that we have to go through if we are to get to a place that sustains and fulfills us. Each step of the process needs to be honored, even the rough patches. We only get to what’s next by accepting what is in the present moment, no matter what state we find ourselves. Sometimes we are lead to a place where there are no evident solutions, one of the most awkward places to navigate. Non-doing is hard to get the hang of, and it’s even more difficult to be patient enough to cultivate in the face of not knowing our next move. After wrestling with the same issues, some for months, some for years, I came across these words from Rumi and felt the ah-ha of stopping all the doing and just being in the moment of what I love, seeing where it leads. It’s one part acceptance and one part surrender. There is a relief in not having to know all the answers and letting our inner wisdom have a say.

Here’s to living fearlessly with the beauty of all we love.

kb