This year, I’ve been actively practicing meeting the unknown with more grace and trust. Which sounds good and is easy to say, but so much depends on how we meet the unexpected. All good if things go with the flow of the agenda that I deem best, but if an unexpected hiccup pops up, what happens? How do I receive that? I notice if I feel stable in myself, then an unexpected whatever won’t throw me so much. I refer not only to the inconvenient, annoying or strange things, but the good and blessed unexpected, either way… How do I meet the unknown?
My aging body has really brought this home to me in a humbling way. My dear body has been taking me places that I didn’t realize I needed to go – it feels a bit like a mystery wilderness without a path sometimes. Pain and limitation and changes in needs that I could have never expected, as well as the deep fugue states of grief alongside of moments of wonderment and rapture. My goodness! It is only my heart that can navigate this territory, definitely not the wheelhouse of my analytical mind! Patience, gentleness and surrender have all been required to go to the deeper level of attunement that my body and being are now asking for.
It turns out that deeper attunement is the very wisdom my body is leading me to. As I release resistance and allow myself to simply be with what is, I see there is a deeper teaching there for me on how to meet the unexpected as it arises in me and around me, in whatever way. As I let go of the bracing and contracted resistance that can be a reaction to ‘what I don’t want’, and release my expectations of how I think things should go, I can soften and relax again. It is there in that softening that I can attune to the deeper need, to listen, open and respond to the guidance is available to me. Perhaps then I can let in the gift, the wisdom and the possibilities of the moment that I couldn’t see at first…
The unexpected obstacles and the unexpected blessings are all part of the miracle and mystery of this life. When I reflect on my life, I see that a lot of the best (and best for me) things that ever happened have been unexpected. The wisdom, guidance, growth and abundance that has blossomed from things that I didn’t seeing coming is impossible to measure. So here in this moment, I see Trust is a jewel in the crown, the ground of stability for me. It allows me to deepen my practice of equanimity, to choose to pause and breath and release my resistance – to meet the unknown with openness and curiosity, willingness and even…Love.