Leaning into the unknown
“To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
It’s not hard to see that we human beings are in quite the predicament. In some moments, just taking in the news can bring me to the brink of despair. Thankfully, it doesn’t take but a moment to see that despair and its cousin overwhelm are not very helpful strategies. But how do we cultivate institutional and individual action to address disparity, inequality, wars instigated by greed, and the degradation of the earth and human dignity?
Early in MBSR teacher training we come across Rumi’s poem exhorting us, “don't turn away, keep looking at the bandaged place, that's where the light enters you.” I haven’t found anything else but practice that allows turning toward rather than away from this pain. Coming together in MBSR with other human beings willing to touch what is true is a supportive gift. In compassionately and non-judgmentally feeling the charge and recognizing the body-mind stress reaction, there is some space to recognize the processes that bring this suffering to arise. Landing in the heart there is a doorway to acknowledging that life is unfolding as it is and not fall into acquiescence, despair, or the frustration of being tightly attached to outcome (still working on that one!).
Of course we get angry… Of course we feel despair... Of course we have a preference for outcome. How grateful I am that practice is here so that everything can be my teacher. I don’t know what to do or what will happen in the next decade or even next week, but with mindfulness, if I remember to pause, despair is not “driving the bus” and I can know what is skillful right now.
If you are reading this post, you, too, are longing for less suffering and more joy in yourself and in our world. “To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it.” Being in the circle in the MBSR teacher’s seat is a humbling gift of that possibility. We in the MTTA invite you to come join us in mutually learning on this path.