Dr. Massage - The Morning Moment Archive: Let Go of the Rock, Waterfall Passages

Thank you for sharing this Morning Moment with me.

Aloha, Peace and Wellness,

Holman

Expedience yawned and awoke, joyful with the dawning of a new day. She had grown accustomed to her new freedom and reveled in the feeling of the current’s flow.

“You know, you’re headed for trouble going the way you’re going,” a little voice squeaked. Startled, Expedience looked around and saw a strange little creature not unlike herself. “I suggest,” it continued, “That you grab on tight to a twig before it’s too late.”

“What sort of trouble? Before what’s too late?”

“The world ends just up ahead. If you keep going you will surely end with it.”

Then the current swept Expedience past.

“Grab on tight before it’s too late!”

Expedience felt troubled. “I can not go back to what I once was,” she thought. Others had predicted her doom and yet she felt more alive than ever.

Unlike before, the creatures below seemed to be pointing and waving with more urgency than wonder. Weren’t they rushing past her more and more quickly? Then suddenly, there were no more creatures below her, only bare rock and moss covered fronds whipping in the current. For the first time Expedience felt completely alone.

“What do I do?” She cried anxiously to the emptiness around her. No one answered. The current roughened and increased. Expedience felt herself yanked into the middle of the mighty river, carried faster and faster, completely out of control. “Help me, somebody please help me!” No one responded.

With a mighty whoop, the river hurled her out of itself. She rocketed, tumbling and spinning, into empty air and suddenly could not breathe. The current fell away over a cliff thousands of times her size and thundered down, down, down. “The world really has ended,” she thought, gasping uselessly for breath.

Then the strangest thing happened. Expedience no longer tumbled and spun as she fell. She beheld for the first time the unfathomable realm of air and land. She felt the sun upon her face without the filtering interference of the water. Opening her eyes she saw sunrise reflecting from clouds, shadowy mountains brightening with dawn and magnificent, winged creatures soaring. She saw grasses, flowers and trees. Colors and sounds burst upon her as never before.

“Is this heaven?” She wondered as gravity unrecognized tugged her with its fierce hand and slammed her breathless back into the current.

After a time she could breathe again and realized she was not dead after all, nor had the world ended. She was left to wonder what just happened.

Aloha and Good Morning,

If I’m to be painfully honest with myself and with all of you, I must admit that it’s been a hard week. I have felt rather distressed. I’ve found myself angry and depressed and for no good reason; this, on the heels of many powerful, positive and wonderful things happening all around me — things that I love and appreciate deeply. I began to wonder why life is so often like that. Why must the most magical of life’s events be followed by seeming hardship and chaos in equal measure. Why must my car get dirty when I just washed it and dust settle again when I just dusted.

So I got to thinking about it, about the nature of reality, or at least my perception of it. I began it realize that perception holds the key. My perception creates my attitude and my attitude dictates how I feel about everything that unfolds in my life. I began to think about how easy it is to slip back into habitual thought patterns that lead to habitual feelings and habitual reactions that may not truly serve me or my growth, or my highest good. I began to appreciate writing about Expedience and her story all the more for metaphors are such powerful teachers.

In my life, I’ve often been left to wonder why my perceptual reality must always encompass duality. Happiness dimmed by sadness; success tarnished by failure; peace interrupted by chaos; harmony disturbed by conflict.

“Why must it be so,” I often cry out? “Why,” I lament, “Can’t I just have one day of peace and quiet!?” (Forgetting that the past has been mostly magical and that my current annoyance will flow by, disappearing in mere moments, if I breathe more deeply and let go of my constant clutching to negativity.)

“But really, I’m a very positive person,” I retort, defensively. Right . . . When I remember to be; when I remember to stand back and witness my thoughts and emotions rolling by on the stage of my mind and heart. After all, I am not my thoughts – I am more than that. I am not my emotions – they do not rule me – at least, when I remain conscious and aware of them.

Have I not proclaimed my desire to learn, to grow, to discover ways to do things differently and better? In so doing, should I feel surprised if the current occasionally grabs me and hurtles me over the waterfall? Does it hurt when I slam back into the current? Yes. Yet, if I remember to “open my eyes,” will I not see the sunrise reflecting from the clouds, the dawn brightening the mountains, the birds soaring? Will not sights, sounds and colors known and unknown flow into my being? Yes, yes, yes! For even in the midst of the painful polishing of life’s passages duality guarantees an equal flow of the divine, the miraculous, wonder and awe, peace and joy.

So when the current grabs you and you feel sucked into the rip tide with no hope of escape – relax and enjoy the ride! Open your eyes and see the miracle that lies in that space of the unknown, that quiet space beyond breath where the divine whispers insight, wisdom, direction and learning into our souls.

May your hearts be filled with aloha and the peace of your day be undiminished by life’s little annoyances. May you remember to breathe more deeply, more often and smile from your mouth to your eyes. Smiling simply changes the way one feels inside. Try it and see.