I've been listening to Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism lately, and I keep having to pause it, often mid-sentence, to ponder the points within...

I shared a piece of this during one of the recent eclipse events, but it’s asking to be mentioned again, with more space to explore.

There’s a passage in the book about being open that stopped me - We tend to revere those who seem open-hearted, open-minded. We place them on pedestals, believing that they are the enlightened ones, the “examples,” the ones who figured it out.

But we’re missing the whole point.

Because being open isn’t some rare, saintly feat. It’s not reserved for mystics or those who meditate at sunrise every day.

Openness is our natural state. It’s actually easier to be open than it is to be closed, guarded, defending, suspicious.

Take that in:
We believe that kindness is rare.
That compassion is hard.
That love is fleeting.
But none of that is true.

The truth? At the core of each of us is love, honour, grace.

And mo...

Over the past few months, I have been learning a lot, sometimes gracefully, with an open mind and heart. But also through addressing the more shadowy aspects of my personality - my occasional stubbornness, the mistrust that surfaces when I feel I'm all on my own, the seemingly crushing anxiousness that comes when I feel there are no other options to be found.

Over the past 6 months, I've been pushing for solutions that I have been meditating on for over a year. The asking and openness began to harden into demands. And I realised that my energy changed into anger and blame, because I believed that one option was the only viable way. I felt worn down and exhausted over spending so much time trying to make something happen when I wanted it to.

I finally got to the point that I understood that option A was just a single option, and that there are in fact many others. 

And the bigger realisation was that option A probably isn't even the best option. It was just the only one I could reall...