My heart longs to connect but its method of connection isn't satisfied by doing. My heart also guides me to find space for peace, rest, and wandering.
Let's take a moment to consider how great we are at doing things. Let yourself think over the last week. I bet you did so much stuff... you went to the store, you drove a car, you worked on some reports, you jogged, ate, drank, cleaned, and so many other action verbs. You did things!
Our commitment to doing could easily serve as justification for a rebrand for the whole concept of humanity. We could change our team name from human beings to human doings. And while this may capture more honestly the current state of our condition, it doesn't do justice to our greater potential.
In Come Home, I share stories from friends who are committed to remaining busy. I share stories of my own compulsion to keep moving. From the book...
Some of us may truly worship our busyness. Others are devoted to feeling obligated. And there there's those of us who fanatically believe no one can replace us; if we don't do the task, no one else will.
In our commitment to remaining indispensable, many of us OVER-do our tasks and find ourselves energetically depleted, disconnected from our well-being, or resentful because no one appreciates us enough. Or all three.
This topic of doing is a ripe one for me as well. Balancing my own spiritual practices with a yearning to share what I've learned requires that I prioritize as much or more space to feel reflective and free as I give to the act of reaching out to others.
I like those failure periods a lot because they give me a chance to see how I surrendered my balance. Maybe my attempts to reach people through instagram resulted in too much time spent scrolling. Maybe my emails became too lengthy. Maybe I went down the rabbit hole when I looked up some helpful information.
In all of these fantastic failings, I see the patterns of my doing. I love to see how my friends are sharing their perspectives so social media can be compelling. I love to share so letters can be long. I love to learn and the internet is a library of so much wonder. I see the yearnings of my heart in the ways I get lost.
And I know the call of my heart can be met more skillfully.
The heart connects deeply in our quiet. Indeed, the quieter we become, the more profoundly we experience the intricate interweaving of every living creature with every breath. In stillness, we discover the ways we exist with and for each other.
From all of this, we can appreciate how we are beings of great energy. When we prioritize its expenditure without due care, we may not leave our heart a chance to connect. We may very well become very accomplished in activities of the head but I know from experience that intellectual accomplishment does not relieve suffering. Only the heart guides us to that peace.
Please give your heart a chance. Allow a few more smiles, a few more sighs. And notice, when our heart guides us to see another creature, we often see it in a very different way than we do under the supervision of our heads.
We see it much more tenderly.
