A voice inside the beat

Reading from Tuesday, December 30, 2014 yoga class

From the book, "Broken Open" by Elizabeth Lesser

The following is from the last chapter of this book.  I thought it was a good reading for the last Tuesday class of 2014.  I quote parts of the chapter.  In case you don't know who Elizabeth Lesser is, she is the lady that founded the Omega Institute in upstate New York.

"Yesterday was my fiftieth birthday.  Today a present arrives from my sisters.  My sisters love me with undying devotion and a biting sense of humor.  They have been my best friends my whole life, and the first to take potshots at every phase I have gone through.  Their respect for who I am is boundless, even though they've been making fun of my spiritual nature since we were kids.

The UPS man hauls a big box from his truck to my front door.  I read the card before I open the box: 'Happy Birthday.  We found this little 'spirit house' for our little fifty year old spirit sister.  A spirit house!  I had seen these when traveling in Thailand--tiny temples perched high up on poles in every family's yard or garden  Thai Buddhists believe that spirit houses provide appealing shelter for heavenly deities who protect and bless the family.  Protection and blessings: who wouldn't want them safely tucked into a little house, keeping watch in the garden?  I open the box carefully.  There, surrounded by plastic packing bubbles, is an exquisite ceramic spirit house, shattered into pieces.

A broken spirit house.  I have to laugh.  I have spent the year finishing this book--a book about finding protection and blessings in the broken moments of our lives.  I have told stories of blessings that come disguised as mess and disaster, not as cute houses secured in sunny gardens.  I trust that the darkness teaches us and leads us toward the light.  Still, it would have been nice to have that spirit house.

Instead, I have the shards.  I keep them in a basket in my writing room.  They give me wise council: they remind me that, while I am never safe form breaking, I am always protected by spirit.

Then she quotes a Rumi poem:    Drum sounds rise on the air,
                                                     and with them, my heart.
                                                     A voice inside the beat says,
                                                     I know you are tired, 
                                                     but come.
                                                     This is the way.

May you listen to the voice within the beat even when you are tired.  When you feel yourself breaking down, may you break open instead.  May every experience in life be a door that opens your heart, expands your understanding, and leads you to freedom.  If you are weary, may you be aroused by passion and purpose.  If you are blameful and bitter, may you be sweetened by hope and humor.  If you are frightened, may you be emboldened by a big consciousness far wiser than your fear.  If you are lonely, may you find love, may you find friendship.  If you are lost, may you understand that we are all lost, and still we are guided--by Strange Angels and Sleeping Giants, by our better and kinder natures, by the vibrant voice within the beat.  May you follow that voice, for This is the way--the hero's journey, the life worth living, the reason we are here."