|
The path to a passionately successful life is paved with deep honorings of breakdowns as well
as breakthroughs. The genius of our particular spirit is sculpted by both our defeats and victories.
The trough and crest of our lives form together the wave that propels our hearts to deeper and higher
meanings, to soulful beauty and abundance.
It is thus very important to recognize that our breakdowns, however frustrating they might be,
are not an impediment to the fullness of life. To the contrary, they are the co- creators of our awareness
and the midwives of our wisdom.
And it is essential to differentiate breakdowns from abusive or oppressive experiences. While
it is wisdom to learn to fully respect and celebrate breakdowns, it is folly to tolerate abuse and remain
in oppressive situations. There is a huge difference between the breakdown of a striving spirit and the
abuse received from the hand of oppressors.
As we intentionally learn to honor our breakdowns, we start to recognize that they are creatively
transmutative. What does this mean? It means that we can allow our breakdowns to become our guides and
show us avenues and possibilities we have not previously considered.
Thus rejections, missed opportunities, and losses become very important guides in our lives, closing
some doors that need to be shut and opening others that need to be seriously considered.
Does this mean that we start looking at breakdowns positively? No, breakdowns are painful and
need to be genuinely grieved. Without fully experiencing and grieving our breakdowns and defeats, we
cannot intentionally transmute them into life guides and mine from them wisdom and power.
We see thus that our life breakdowns are part of the threads that weave the tapestry of our lives.
We are able on one hand to shed tears of sadness over our losses and, on the other hand, to have a heartfelt
laugh around the beauty of this life's journey.
As we advance into our quest for excellence, we begin to celebrate proudly, joyfully, and buoyantly
our defeats, as well as the ones of those close to us. We reach a soulful place where these breakdowns,
although they do sadden us, do not drain our energies. Rather, through us intentionally grieving and
honoring them from a centered place, these breakdowns augment our creative creative energy and elevate
our sense of dignity.
The more we reach forward into life, the more we actively build and create, the more breakdowns
and losses we have to be able to hold. Hold with a serene knowing that what is great is born through
creative bitterness as well as creative ecstasy. And the more we can hold, the more Life can flow generously
through us. This is the path of spiritual maturity and mastery.
What is achieved, then, is a greater and greater toleration of creative bitterness. A bitterness
that becomes less and less weighing and more and more intentionally appreciated, if not welcomed and
liked. And, paradoxically, what is also achieved is a liberation from the toleration of abuse and toxic
experiences. What is abusive or toxic is very different from what is creatively bitter.
This distinction between abuse or toxicity and creative bitterness is crucial. To be abused and
oppressed does drain the energy of one's spirit. In such cases, the appropriate action is to free oneself,
and others, when possible, completely and as soon as possible, from the claws of oppression. Abuse is
a concrete violation or shaming of one's spirit. Creative bitterness is about the disappointments, losses
and reversals we encounter in the pursuit of our authentic heart yearnings and dreams.
The result of allowing the waves of life to flow and unfold in our daily experience, with their
troughs and peaks, is a staggering creative energy and perspective. It is nothing less than living in
the full abundance of our own heart power. It is about fully claiming the hidden treasures of our birthright.
Thus we are prodded by Life to take intentional risks that will allow us to fully plunge into
the mystery and richness of our destiny. We are asked not to hold back from speaking the fire that burns
our bellies. Not to hold back out of fear of breakdowns and failures. For, as we have been asserting,
when we intentionally and valiantly claim the birthrights of our life and heart dreams, even our failures
become glorious building blocks!
As we truly embrace Life, with its scary, yet pregnant, down-waves and its radiant up-waves, we
become more intentional and heart-centered leaders with something very important to offer to community
and culture. We become wise human beings who bestow blessings to others in their failures and remind
them of the glory and beauty of their breakdowns. We become mentors who can console the hurting youth
and remind them that the broken pieces of their quest are but the golden nuggets of their thriving tomorrows.
And finally, we can say that those who wear the breakdowns and breakthroughs of their lives with
soulful pride are true heart-centered leaders that can inspire the larger culture out of its paralyzing
worship of positive perfectionism. They can invite their communities to acknowledge losses and grief,
to honor difficulties and struggles (as well as the effusion of joyful laughter and excitement). We are
talking about leaders who know the power of the Intentional Paradox, who will shun rigidity and powerfully
mine this paradox's incredible richness.
We can say that to passionately celebrate life's breakdowns and breakthroughs is to embrace the
progressive spiral of evolution, to embrace a life force that continuously takes us to deeper levels
of consciousness and experience. Life can be trusted, and life demands from us a continuous stride toward
greater intentionality and wisdom.
Life, this grand companion, is a sacred presence. It refuses to be controlled or subdued. Like
an ocean, it cannot be shrunk or packaged. Life has to be met, intentionally, eye to eye, heart to heart,
fullness to fullness.
Life is like an ocean, it cannot be shrunk or packaged, it has to be respected and loved in its
multidimensional epic richness.
|
