The story goes something like this, there is an old woman, older than time, that sits weaving in a cave. She is weaving the most extravagant and intricate garment. It has quills and feathers that she has carefully gathered, beads the color of the ocean and pieces of bark and branch, there are threads of fire and blood alongside shells, acorns, pebbles, and tinkling bells. She has been weaving longer than anyone can remember. She goes between this endeavor at the front of the cave and stirring a pot of seeds over an open fire at the back of the cave. These are all the seeds from every plant in the world and she must continue to periodically stir them so they will not burn up and be destroyed. This is how her she spends her days, split between weaving the most stunning garment and sustaining every living plant on the earth. One day as she is in the back of the cave stirring the seeds a black dog enters and pulls at the loose thread of her garment. He pulls and pulls until he unravels it all. Upon returning to this work she discovers it is all lost, at which point she sits down and picks up her needle and thread and begins again. This next garment will be even more beautiful and breathtaking than the one before.
This is the story of our lives sometimes. It feels that all our beautiful plans continue to unravel again and again. We can spend weeks, months or even years mourning all the work that’s been undone or that’s seemingly amounted to nothing. Whether we like to admit it or not, this is our choice. We can continue to mourn, i.e., stay stuck, or we can get back to work. Getting back to work means picking up our own thread of what matters most and beginning again, with small steps or giant leaps. We always have another opportunity to create an even bigger dream, a more beautiful life.
This coming together and pulling apart is the natural cycle of life and the question we are asked over and over again is what will we do when it all falls apart. Some things may feel very easy to start back up or move on from, perhaps we don’t have that much energy invested in them or haven’t traveled too far down the road. Then there are the things that have been our life’s work and moving forward from that difficult unraveling seems like an impossibility. This is when it becomes even more important to gather our strength and begin again.
A child dies, a family member has a devastating illness, a divorce. These all ask us to be brave enough to pick up the thread again with greater awareness, greater compassion, and even greater awe and respect for life’s mysterious processes, and begin the daunting task of recreating ourselves and our lives one step at a time. In one way or another life asks us to do this every day. We answer this call with the choices we make and when we add a bit of joyfulness and gratitude it’s like rocket fuel when starting over.
Look at what’s coming to an end for you, what is changing, or asking you to recreate yourself. Is it a feeling, a way of being, a circumstance, or re-envisioning who you think you are? This ebb or falling away is asking you to begin again where you are right now. Don’t let fear stand in between where you are and where you want to be. Don’t be afraid to pick up the thread again and begin something new or different than you’d imagined. Know that the new story, your new creation, will be bigger, deeper, and more meaningful exactly because of all that has come before and of all that has been seemingly lost. In truth, nothing is ever really lost.
Don’t delay any longer, begin weaving your world anew. Think of the glorious creation that’s waiting to be born.
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