Stress, anxiety and loneliness appear to be the growing concerns of our time. In a time of plenty it’s not unusual to hear people complain of ‘not enough’. The strain of trying to keep all the balls in the air can seem relentless and alienate us from what is juicy and good in our lives.
“Too many good things can make a very bad thing indeed. ”
I’ve been there, done that and paid the price. It’s like being on automatic pilot headed for a crash landing or outright disappearance from the stratosphere. Old habits and patterns are hard to shift and even though I’m growing more aware of my choices there are still times when I feel as though I’m out of step with my life, almost like being beside myself with excitement, stress, grief, plans, anguish, joy ... whatever!
There is so much to distract and lure us out of our centres and into the land of plenty. Even if they all seem like great things - as a friend of mine once said - ‘too many good things can make a very bad thing indeed’. Slowly I’m learning that no matter what the commitment, passion, good idea, feeling or emotion moving or driving me, unless I’m connected to the rhythm of my own heart and can listen to the still small voice at the centre of my being, I am destined to get lost if not now, then someday!
“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination.
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Below is a chant by Ma Prem Maniko from her CD - Magic in the Air that brings me back to the centre - not just of my own heart but somehow when I listen to it "it announces my place in the family of things” as Mary Oliver speaks of in her poem 'Wild Geese'