Holding Opposites

Holding Opposites

"Holding Opposites" - mixed media on 300 lb watercolor paper, 15 x 15.  Available here and at Artfinder.

Sometimes I just have to stop, take a breath and say whoa.  When wrestling with life (who is a slippery, strong sparring partner, by the way) I am just giddy when a friend, a book or a bit of wisdom drops into my lap just like the universe was listening in on my whispered thoughts.  And, of course, it is. :)

This week it was a worn and heavily underlined book loaned to me by an artist friend.  The Five Things We Cannot Change and the Happiness We Find By Embracing Them, by David Richo.  From the first page, it was my life in print and some very profound (if challenging) wisdom for, well, NOT controlling it. 

In a chapter called "Everything Changes and Ends" (ACK!  Stop showing me my life!) there is instruction for a two-handed practice in which you hold your fear in one hand and your commitment to no longer act in a fear-based way in the other.  As in a Buddhist practice, you sit in your fear and breathe into it (not denying or pushing away) and then, simultaneously have awareness that you can handle whatever it is and get through it without becoming devastated.    Richo says "One hand is serenely mindful; one is courageously working.  When I hold both realities this way, I am agreeable to things as they are, and I am doing all I can to change them for the better as well."  Relinquishing control and still doing your best.  Saying "yes" to things as they are and holding hope they will be better.  Reality plus hope = serenity and courage.  

So I am practicing this holding of opposites in my thrice-daily walks (thank you, Wonder Mike, for keeping me moving).  And I am watching the fear fall away as the self-empowerment grows.  Yes to all the things.  Yes to all the hope.  Leaving a trail of cast-off control urges in the gutter with all the pretty red and yellow leaves.