A nip in the air hints of winter’s call to hunker down and come back to True Self. We bundle up joys, disappointments, questions and certainties and take them into the womb-like cave where Bear invites us to still ourselves in Mystery.
While Bear is asleep, she gives birth to her cubs, a metaphor for how quiet can offer new life. We set goals, accomplishing much in spring, summer and fall, and then Bear takes us into a state of introspection to seek truth, observe our motives and consider our authorities.
Often, teaching required me to look forward to an end result. In coaching, I focused my preparation on the other. Many are surprised now, when I say that the readying I do for a spiritual direction session has more to do with me than with the one I am companioning.
My job is to lose myself, so that I can hold a safe space and deeply listen to the other’s journey. Beyond the answers that most of us think we must have is a truer need of someone respectfully witnessing our lives. It is not about the seeker finding another external power or even validity in my way, but rather finding the sweetness of Sacred within.
If I have allowed the arduous quiet in my life, I am better able to welcome rough spots in the gestation process of another. If I have addressed the nagging interruptions in my mind, then I can give full, compassionate attention to another’s anxiousness, stuck-ness, or wounded-ness, because I remember being there, perhaps even earlier that day!
Around Bear’s cave, Wisdom spreads her protective wings. As I consider my voyage to peace through womb’s waters, I notice the ever-persisting ebb and flow of calm. If I cease struggling and humbly receive each wave of the passage, I am more apt to breathe a prayer over the next honest step for the other’s journey, as well.
What we offer ourselves, we offer to another. And what we offer to another, we give back to ourselves. In Bear’s womb-like cave, wisdom ushers us into the Christ consciousness where we find wholeness, slowly renouncing all intentions, but love.
Sacred Ruminations*