OUT ON A LIMB

Out on a limb!  That is today.  I feel like I would like to run away from home, from the office, from problems, from crazed and crazy people, from insanity, and from the world.  Like this cat, I would like to be perched high above it all and just observe, laughing occasionally at the bizarre happenings below me.  Instead, I am being forced into the middle of the messes, dumped in my lap while the one(s) that caused it go happily about their business, taking no responsibility whatsoever.

 I love this quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run With Wolves. It screams to be remembered today.  "I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and your laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom." 

We all have our stories to tell.  But question is...do these stories imprison us or liberate us?  Without our stories our lives are meaningless.  Sure we all have childhood wounds, less than perfect parents, painful relationships, and unfulfilled dreams.  All of this is self- focused.  But what happens to others, the ones these repercussions fall upon?  Is it so shocking to think that for every action there is a reaction?  And just perhaps that reaction causes others great unrealized, and sometimes paralyzing, pain.

We all have the ability to tell our stories of how we were victimized or abused or prevented from doing something or getting something or becoming something.  Some blame everyone else but themselves for the problems they encounter or for their inertia.  This ability to identify how we are victimized or abused is thrust on others, so they never have to take responsibility for the dilemmas they find ourselves in.  This does not liberate them but makes them, and others, quite fed up with the worn-out anecdotes. 

Becoming tired of the story and wishing for an ending to the story is what most want.  Sometimes we just get plain sick of the excursion back into the deep recesses of the memory bank.  Sometimes we just want to lie on the floor and snuggle up to a dog and inhale and exhale quietly, forgetting the story and its ending.  Maybe we should all walk out into the sunshine, or the rain, or under the moon and stars and realize that liberation lies within.  Only we can release the stories and the wrongs done. 

You see the sunshine and the rain and the stars do not require anything of us.  No action is necessary, nothing is demanded.  It is here that you find peace.  Letting go of our stories opens us up to all kinds of possibilities and most of all freedom. So when you are out on that limb try looking up, instead of down.  It is here you will find your future.