My friend Lois likes to say, “half the beauty of the gift is in the manner in which it is received.”
We came into this world loaded with gifts.
We are learning how to say Thank You for these gifts.
We are learning how to live Thank You for these gifts.
We are learning how to honor and dignify and grow these gifts through the manner in which they are received.
There can be a curious taboo around receiving gifts.
We want to push them away. Subtly or clearly.
We want to give the gift, the compliment, the help, but receiving it is somehow more challenging.
We are given gifts and what gets in the way of receiving beautifully?
Half the beauty of the gift is in the manner in which it is received.
What stops up, slows us, shy’s us when it comes to receiving, accepting, acknowledging our innate gifts?
I think there is a perception of audacity that borders on arrogance that we are very afraid to be perceived as.
If I don’t balk at the compliment. If I don’t quickly deflect. If I don’t speak to all the reasons it's not how it appears, then people might think me arrogant, narcissistic, inflated.
And those traits are not traits that engender love and connection and support.
So. We distance ourselves from that.
Through a variety of means.
Rejecting, discounting, undermining our gifts, our gold, our MAJESTY are all ways we’ve found to keep us safe from the risk of being perceived as arrogant, inflated, narcissistic.
I grew up Christian. And whether you grew up Christian or not you grew up in a Christian nation. You grew up with the mega story of Christ, original sin, salvation through death, morality, rule and law, and much more baked into the fabric of this land that was stolen and colonized.
Christ, a man of love, a man loaded with gifts, a man who eventually posed a great threat to the status quo did not reject his gifts. He embraced them. And invited others to do the same.
It is not lost on me that the world’s most well known state-sanctioned murder involved a man unwilling to diminish his light in the face of true existential threat.
Whether you grew up believing any of the story of Christ or not, this story permeates the cultural fabric of this nation.
Knowingly or unknowingly, I think, we are reluctant to shine as bright as we can because murder will be the result.
I think, when we deflect a compliment, we are unconsciously safeguarding ourselves from murder.
Christ, and many others in history, refused to shrink his shine.
I think there is something at the deep survival level that prevents us from truly accepting our radiance.
And I love the Christ story because death did not prevail.
And that’s why I love nature, creation, the wild.
Death does not prevail.
Death is essential.
Death is a phase.
A phase you enter.
A phase you leave.
Christ is one example for humanity.
And nature is a living, dying, cycling example of the impermanence of life attached to static form.
And yes. I do think we are signing up for death when we step into our gifts.
For most of us it won’t be state sanctioned murder.
But death will visit us as we embrace our gifts.
We will grow.
And to grow is to die.
And to die is to be folded into a tapestry of mystery teeming with life.
Jung says, darkness and upheaval alway precede an expansion of consciousness.
Said another, death always precedes more life.
Some of us spend our whole lives avoiding death.
Some of us learned that death is not to be avoided but to be entered as its grip on us is not eternal. And its grip on us is actually the hands of God shaping us into our next state of beauty.
I can avoid lots of deaths.
I cannot avoid the death of my body.
I want to dance with death throughout my life.
To continue to become.
To continue down the river along the way to the ocean.
I want to dance with death knowing that death is but a station, not a destination.
And oddly, I think, accepting our gifts is signing up for death.
And naturally there is reluctance.
The Autumn is ending.
Winter is coming.
Death is dawning.
And the Winter is where the magic happens.
The Winter is chrysalis time.
The Winter is the time when the soul inspirits the baby just beginning its journey in its mother.
The Winter is the time when soul of the earth dreams its way into being. Through us.
We are earth.
How much water makes up our bodies?
How much water makes up this earth?
What is at the center of our life force hot and red with blood?
And what is at the center of this earth?
We are earth animated.
And we are wild beings of will and creativity, love and beauty.
The Winter is where the deep dream descends and the cave walls flicker from the ancient fire and the old songs still echo off the cathedral of granite and quartz overhead.
And it's Death that supports this dreaming.
And it's saying YES to change and transformation that renders the sting of death harmless.
When we say Yes to our gifts we say yes to our Death. When we say YES to your Death. We are saying YES to a new and more aligned life.
Nature does not resist change.
Nature does not resist its resplendence.
Nature is audacious.
Nature is eternal.
Did you know that all the water that has ever been on the earth is still on the earth and it will never be destroyed?
Nature is eternal.
And when we talk about “our nature” or “one’s nature” we are talking about the innate essence of the person. Who they are at their core. Their nature.
Nature is unselfconscious expression.
This is our goal.
Unselfconcioius expression.
And Death is our refinement along the way.
Death is where the Grip of Safety, Grip of Security, Grip of Surety has its fingers slowly pulled back to allow for the next form, the next posture, the phase to emerge.
In this way, we never die. In this way, we are always dying.
Our gifts invite death.
And our soul writes each invitation, requests an RSVP, and licks each envelope.
Our soul is constantly bringing us into contact with opportunities to align ourselves with our Nature.
And the many forms of death is the gift that soul gives us and waits to see the manner in which it is received.
Beautifully.
Or
Resistantly.
And the Soul is relentless.
And it will get your attention.
As it already has many times in your life and as it will many times to come.
The question is can we become just a little more sensitive to the Soul’s tug at the sleeve?
Can we become a little more courageous to move towards the thing we can’t seem to shake wanting?
Can we let go of what seems to be sloughing off of us to be able to receive that which is on its way to us?
Can we embody the resplendent nature of our gifts?
Can we step into our gifts?
Can we receive the reflections of others to help us see our gifts more clearly?
Can we believe we are as beautiful as we’re being told?
This week, we try.
We try.
We try.