The Time Has Come

The time has come

With elation,

Greet yourself

Arriving at your own door, in your own mirror,

And each smile at the other's welcome.

Sit here. Eat

Love the stranger who is yourself.

Give wine. Give bread.

Give back your heart to itself,

To the stranger who has loved you all your life,

Whom you have ignored for another,

Who knows you by Heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

The photographs, the desperate notes,

Peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit.  Feast on your life.

~ Derek Walcott ~

Well, I arrived back in Canada after being six weeks away in Maine.  It’s good to sit with you and share again.  As usual the stirrings of what to write started early this morning while waking up.  It feels so vast, it’s difficult to put into words what is wanting to emerge, so I’ll just start and see what comes.

Let me begin with a childhood scene that came up …

As a small girl, I had very long hair and it was naturally curly, so when it was time to wash, Mom would use rainwater to rinse it out so that it didn’t get so tangled and hard to comb through.  While visiting my grand parents there was no rainwater to use.   It hadn’t rained in awhile and the rain barrel was stagnant and filled with bugs.  So, the scene that came to me this morning was my standing by the window watching the fresh rain filling the rain barrel.  When it reached to the top, it overflowed and all of the bugs and stagnant water flowed out.  Within the day there was fresh rainwater, giving this little girl soft, flowing hair once again.

As we have been experiencing being with each other in the Presence of Love, haven’t we realized a comfortable space where we can step into each other’s shoes and truly feel where the other person is coming from?  In a sense of not knowing, we can then ask questions and perceive what might be happening for our loved one.  This is what might be called Heart to Heart communion, which is quite beautiful when experienced.

"I-in-you" ...  I tune into and sense from within 

with my heart wide open."  

- Otto Scharmer

What I would like to share with you now seems to go even deeper than this … a place of “open will” or “I-in-now.”

“I-in-now” … I understand from the source 

or the bottom of my being, 

that is, from attending with my open will. 

– Otto Scharmer

In this space there is no one to experience “an other’s shoes,” … there is just pure listening from this vast open space.  No thinking … no trying to fix or know anything … no agenda whatsoever.  The “I” or “me” is fully surrendered into this moment of Now ... from the bottom of my being ... one is simply open and listening.

When I first experienced this, it was during an exercise in a retreat I attended while in Maine.  We were partnered up to listen to each other’s life story from this place of “open will.”   As my partner was telling his life story, I simply listened.  There were a few questions along the way to be sure I was hearing it all correctly and clearly, but otherwise I just stayed open and listened ... nothing else.   Then, it was my turn to tell my life story.  What I experienced, as he just remained open and listened, was a wonderful sense of a safe space and of being fully seen for who I am prior to my "story."   He shared he felt the same experience.  We met in this place of “open will” … only one Heart … not two.  

Greet yourself

Arriving at your own door,

In your own mirror,

And each will smile at the other's welcome.

In this moment of now ... now ... now ... now ... this is where we continue to meet … as this vast Openness of Love.

Freshness is pouring in and spilling over … the old feelings, the old stories are washing clean in the presence of this Love.

From the bottom of Being ... being the seeing … we are this Fullness of Love simply being itself.  

Who knows how it all will all unfold from Here.  We shall see as each moment freely emerges.  

I am so grateful to be together with all of you as this Love ... as this One Heart.  What a blessed life,

Elizabeth