Carry On

I’ve seen the meme: Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

Today, in the Wissahickon Park : It was not my duck.

Let me explain.

I was chatting with a friend of mine, how we were noticing lots of women friends of ours were similarly going through some change in our lives. Not that change, necessarily, but a change.

It’s a subtle change with far reaching possibility. So subtle it really is a mere feeling, a whisper.

But the whisper seems to be something like: Do more by doing less. Or maybe it’s be more by doing less. Something of that configuration. 

To jump track on quantitative accomplishment in a world that is hell-bent on doing can make one think they are going crazy. So we often, don't.

More being is not about laziness, yet it can feel like laziness in a society that lauds doing to the point that we alternate Starbucks for Redbull, mid-day switch to bourbon and topped off with Zoloft at night, as the norm — as long as we are doing (insert forced smile and a go-get-um air punch) then everything must be a-okay.

Guess what? It’s not working. 
It’s not.

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones that is figuring it out now, so you feel completely inadequate because there is no paradigm for change and you feel alone. That’s just it — there is no paradigm for change.  When we are safe to speak our vulnerability in a circle of trusted peers, we may just learn that there are a pop-corning few others that are feeling just as we are feeling. You are not alone.

I attended a talk last night at Palo Santo, where Vraja Kishor talked about us all being rays of consciousness off the root of consciousness. It’s like that. It’s also like the 100 monkey theory (which has been debunked yet is still widely cited).  Sometimes a whole bunch of people simply start to notice that it is time to do things differently. Sometimes things don't make sense. Sometimes we have to feel the bravery of doing something all alone to realize that we are indeed - not alone.

My friend mentioned, “That if you can see the path ahead of you - then it is not your path.”

Yup. Sometimes as life gets better or bigger it simultaneously becomes more nuanced. Or maybe life is life and we just have the ability to notice more when we give our selves more space to do so.

Moments after she had mentioned the unseen, the felt path that must be forged and trusted before it is understood or even seen; a path that appears as you are the only one going down it  — I saw a pair of ducks fly off into the sky. So beautiful.

Next, I noticed this itty bit baby duckling paddling its little legs off to get up stream. She was tiny. She was headed right for a rip current that she swirled into, almost capsized over from, and got brought back right to the ebb where she started. It was heartbreaking and memorizing to watch.

She journeyed forth again. Swimming, avoiding the ebb and now hopping on to a giant rock. What the little baby duck couldn’t see -  but we could -  was that if she stayed close to the water she would have a larger, more dangerous rip ahead that would surely send her downstream at best and probably much worse.

“I cannot stand here," I declare and wade into the water, aiming to get closer to the duck, to help. My girlfriend heads closer up to the rip current to see what could be done and how to help the duck scout ahead. Noticeably neither of us dashed right for the duckling. 

Her husband sat down and watched. Why? Well he realized what took us a few more minutes and a pair of wet shoes to realize: This is Nature.

As much as we wanted to help - something still held us back as we watched innate tenacity in action, and while we panicked for the duck — she headed straight on up stream as fast as she could, out of sight.

You cannot save anyone, not even a duck.

We reflected how our intervening could have even hurt our beloved duckling, dragging her further off course — even in our desire to help - this was not our circus, or our journey and in all our knowingness - we knew nothing.  There is also the reality we don’t like to think of: Perhaps this duckling was a runt and like it or not lives perish, relationships perish, jobs dissipate, death is constantly upon us. 

So while we can, we may want to consider taking a moment to set some space for being, and being sure we are headed to our heart’s destination, for that gives us the fortitude to face and overcome the inevitable rip currents. Our focused intent enables that no matter what - like that little duck — we carry on the best that we can. For sometimes the help we so desperately seek in this moment to make life easier could, actually take us further away from our precious destination, home.

I learned a lot from that little duck — just watching her be who she is.

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"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more." -  Lord Byron

"Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them."
- Rabindranath Tagore

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What's Next?
Speaking of creating space to hear what needs to be heard, we have 2 upcoming workshops in the Philly Area:  
Sit In Your Center: A Woman's Retreat in meditation, movement and intention based in Aloha
June 4th at The Humble Lion Doylestown, Pa click here to register
June 5th at Thrive Wellness, Malvern, Pa click here to register

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