Black/white, good/bad, right/wrong… Magpie shows us how to move beyond either/or, to consider both/and.
Ah, that moment when someone sees and accepts you as you are. That vulnerable moment, when your deepest longings feel met.
The one who senses what to keep confidential, even when they could benefit from engaging in a little gossip. Any hope you lost in humanity, wells up inside, once again.
Being in a non-judgmental community that lets you be you, is also a gift. When there is a misunderstanding between two, the two speak directly to each other rather than involving everyone else. That’s when you feel safe, free from the need to carry around defensiveness as a protective shield.
But what about the other times? Can you look back on the betrayal of a trusted other as a gift, too? How about the time a person shamed you publicly, tainted your reputation with a lie or swindled you?
Maybe you felt coaxed to conform to a group’s way of thinking, or marginalized? Or perhaps, in a time of need, you reached out to other people, but found yourself wandering around in the dark alone.
Magpie is here, in part, to help us reconcile the contradictions in our lives. Are you able to see the preciousness of your wounds now? Invaluable really, because they invited you into an intimate relationship with the Sacred inside of you.
Ask yourself a few questions: Would you know your strength had the other person stayed? Could you see the Holy in everything, if they had responded as you had hoped, back then? Would you be as compassionate toward universal suffering had you never shared in the suffering that, in time, led you to forgive and include?
Magpie comes with obvious opposites, black and white, together. Can you find any good in what you once saw as bad?
Polarity keeps us from wholeness. How will you hold the opposites? What will it take to release your attachment to the smaller either/or, so that Magpie’s larger, more inclusive both/and can emerge?
Making Spirit Flesh*
Whether Christian or not, sharing in the suffering of Christ inevitably leads to a higher consciousness, forgiveness of those who have wronged you, and including people that you once saw as other. So, how are you doing? Is Magpie’s medicine bitter and difficult to swallow or a welcome relief?