Response from Apple Farm Writer Barbra Goering who lives in Chicago, IL.
This winter the voice I hear is one that has spoken on a guided yoga meditation recording for many years:
If there is frustration, let it go. If there is anger against people, let it go. If there is criticism for yourself, let it go. Life has so many frustrations, small and large, and so many frightening problems and crises. If I use this mantra, it becomes the starting point for action. The “let it go” is not passive or even, necessarily, pacific. It clears the way of the emotions of desire for revenge or hatred of oneself, emotions that can block my ability to deal effectively with a problem or person. I have listened to this voice when suiting up to face small or large challenges, whether they are personal, national, or worldwide.
When I let go of the feeling of frustration, a new feeling comes in: a peace that can allow contemplation of the source of the blockage. When I let go of my fury against another, I can step back, assess the other and what the other presents to me. When I let go of the criticism of myself—for feeling the frustration, for feeling the urge to exact revenge for a wrong, for my inadequate response to evil—then I can feel an opening for a new way of thinking and feeling to begin. I may be able to see the quarter-turn that Helen Luke writes about—the shift that opens the way to revelation.
The problems of this world, inner and outer, may remain knotty and difficult of resolution. But the way can be cleared to face them, to strategize, to feel my true response deeply. Then the hard work can begin.
Barbra Goering February 2019
This winter the voice I hear is one that has spoken on a guided yoga meditation recording for many years:
If there is frustration, let it go. If there is anger against people, let it go. If there is criticism for yourself, let it go. Life has so many frustrations, small and large, and so many frightening problems and crises. If I use this mantra, it becomes the starting point for action. The “let it go” is not passive or even, necessarily, pacific. It clears the way of the emotions of desire for revenge or hatred of oneself, emotions that can block my ability to deal effectively with a problem or person. I have listened to this voice when suiting up to face small or large challenges, whether they are personal, national, or worldwide.
When I let go of the feeling of frustration, a new feeling comes in: a peace that can allow contemplation of the source of the blockage. When I let go of my fury against another, I can step back, assess the other and what the other presents to me. When I let go of the criticism of myself—for feeling the frustration, for feeling the urge to exact revenge for a wrong, for my inadequate response to evil—then I can feel an opening for a new way of thinking and feeling to begin. I may be able to see the quarter-turn that Helen Luke writes about—the shift that opens the way to revelation.
The problems of this world, inner and outer, may remain knotty and difficult of resolution. But the way can be cleared to face them, to strategize, to feel my true response deeply. Then the hard work can begin.
Barbra Goering February 2019
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