Wisdom Wednesday: The Way Through Daily Life

“Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude,

Knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging.

Dance with me in the sound of small daily words,

Holding neither against me at the end of the day.”

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Excerpt from poem The Dance

The Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

In our youths we are so drawn to the intoxication of the New Love.  The magnetism, the sensuality, the intense craving…the wanting desperately to be a Whole with someone else.  Romance then was so much about FIRE, and that fire burned both ways for good and bad, ecstasy and desolation.  In marriage Love is so much more about shared solitude, small moments, deep appreciation of constancy, the shared support through the grind…newness that blossoms only with deep familiarity.  A marriage can only work when two people can walk together through the small ups and downs, the boredom and frustration as well as they can through the big moments,the survival moments, the big ecstatic moments.   

As I watch organized Religion continue to struggle I see that it’s the same problem.  So many religious organizations and spiritual teachers are one trick ponies.  That seek for that high or that low and get you addicted to that.  But is it enough to sustain you through daily life?  Does it provide you with guidance and support through ALL of your choices?  Or is it just when you’re on retreat or going to church on Sundays?  Religion and Spiritual Practice must feed you constantly, must be able to be woven into the fabric of your daily life…the silent moments, the small daily tasks.  Otherwise it cannot feed you.  People seeking one stop transformation will be disappointed again and again, just like those that want a relationship with ONLY the intense Fire.

I personally mix health and wellness with religion and spirituality because to me, they are the same thing.  But I get that many separate them.  Either way, what I say above can be applied to Health and Wellness as well.  People that are always after the ONE CURE often spend most of their lives disappointed.  They want the One practice, the One Supplement, the One healing modality that will put an end to their problems.  But, like life, Healing is a Journey…it’s messy, it’s up and down and all over the place, and sometimes in the end where you get may not be where you intended to go.  You need healing practices and supplements that are sustainable through it all.  Choose healing modalities that can walk with you on your journey appreciating the mystery as much as the sudden clarities.

We all would like less problems, and we seek for answers.  Sometimes we find them.  Sometimes we don’t.  The Life isn’t about having all of the answers. Most of Life takes place in between the formation of a question and the resolution.  Like Rainer Maria Rilke says, “ And the point is, to Live everything.  Live the questions now.”  So seek practices, belief systems, teachers, herbs, modalities…whatever…that help you walk through day to day life as you live through the maze of all of your questions.  Like any Path, and Way, the will be with you every step, and on those days where you find yourself faced with a cliff you know not how to cross, they will create a bridge for you.

-Corey the Grey