The Lesson in the Dirt

While I was out in the back yard doing my stretches this morning, I found myself in a familiar position with my face just inches above the ground.  I always enjoy this opportunity to take in the details of the earth that is normally under my feet, but this morning something stirred inside of me as I looked at it.  I felt compelled to really pay attention to what I was looking at and I sensed the familiar sensation of an incoming message.

As I stretched out there with my nose just inches above the dirt, I noticed how what we think of as dirt is really just a collection of countless materials.  It became clear when I was that close to it that there were little pieces of dead leaves, broken twigs, tiny stones, and all kinds of other things that were lying there partially broken down.  These were the things that, with time, would also become part of that dirt.  Their energy would be released into the earth and would help to make the ground fertile for the next generation of life to grow from.

For a moment I was completely transfixed, mesmerized by what I was seeing in the ground beneath me.  By doing nothing but remaining still, the earth births a whole symphony of activity.  From simplicity, complex systems unfold.  The earth doesn’t reach out to pull more nutrient rich leaves and twigs to it; nor does it push away the things it doesn’t need.  It remains unmoved regardless of what materials fall upon it.  And in remaining unmoved, those materials are able to give the best of what they are to the earth and the earth then repays that by way of its richness.

So it must be for us in our day to day lives.  When we are able to remain still and quiet the ego, we can accept things as they are.  If we are able to do this, to stop trying to control what’s around us, we give those things permission to express their truest nature.  In so doing, we enrich the whole environment, ourselves included.  When we allow others to be their true and unchanged self, they respond by granting us the same permission.  As this freedom to express continues to move outward, the whole environment becomes ripe with passion.   When we let go and accept what is, we can stop wasting so much mental energy on labeling, anticipating, and planning.  We encourage and are encouraged to break down those processes that we don’t need and release the pure energy that resides underneath.

In this way, perhaps, we can all benefit by remembering to just let things be.  Let’s give each other permission to be our true selves, to release our own creative passions in the way that we each are meant to.  Let’s try to be a little more like the earth, hold nothing and reject nothing.  If we do this, maybe we can collectively prepare our world for the next great generation of passionate creations even as we are simply expressing our own.

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