We humans mark time, divide it into years, months, weeks, days and hours. But time, in a greater sense, can be thought of as a creative, seamless evolving. We might ask a beginning-of-the-year question with that perspective in mind. What am I at this time asked to bring into being? The first answer that intuitively comes to us is usually the right one. Bringing into Being is my topic for January. And the mystery is that as we become that which we are seeking it will be not just for us but also for everyone.
Phrases posted on Facebook, January 2018
I have never found that making New Year’s Resolutions worked for me. Those resolutions were often about what I would not be going to do any more. Leading with a not doesn’t fuel a good enterprise. When I ask my heart and gut, what do you want to bring into being? something stirs–a feeling, a hint, or a soft whisper. Those nudges remind me that we are all creators. We need to say, yes to our inner longings.
A fun and loving thing to do is to remember our selves at a younger time, a time when we loved to play. Our younger selves are still within us. They still want to play. Why not spend a little time and ask the kid, what would you like to do? That is, what do you want to bring into being today? If we ask it we need to follow through! There is no pout like a disappointed child, and we will be amazed at how refreshed we will feel if we do follow through.
It has been my experience that anything worthwhile I want to bring into being already exists in another dimension, in the realm of potential. That is comforting. The job then is to stay focused long enough, consistently enough, with help enough to bring the project into this dimension. That’s mostly about love of the idea and hours of grunt work.
What if we took a little time one quiet morning to ask what is ours to bring into being this season of winter? This should not be a question based on obligation or any other sort of pressure. When we ask the question neutrally, maybe more than one morning, something of an invitation to live more fully is sure to bubble up. It could be anything from have more quiet time to learn to tap dance! Consulting our inner being is a loving thing to do.
On any day with a little leisure, a good question to ask is, what longs for attention inside me? Putting our ears to the heart’s door we may be able to hear the whispered answer. Presence and listening are the beginnings of anything we want to bring into being.
Not all creative projects need to be long and arduous. They can be the creation of a delicious meal, a spontaneous drawing, a joke, a letter to the editor, or the rearrangement of the living room furniture. Any intention to bring something lovely into being just ‘cause will brighten our days.
Here are some wonderful words from Katherine Mansfield about bringing Love into being: Everything in life we really accept undergoes a change. Suffering must become Love. Bringing any loss to the lip of the cave of sorrows we may have been living in, we let a little ordinary sunshine warm us. Just that is the beginning of bringing into being the stirrings of new life. How tender that little act is, and how capable we are at some level to hunger for the world again.
The days are getting just a bit longer and brighter. We may now feel a subtle winter thaw. What is beginning to melt inside us? What small thing within us is asking to be warmed, is asking us to bring it out into visible being?
Nothing can be hurried when we bring something into being. The process is as important as the final result. In the end it is all being.
Listening with our hearts brings more into being than we know. The sense of mutuality that arises when we hear out hearts always heralds something new.
Some things come into being simply because we are open and playful. We take a chance, for instance and change a recipe for the heck of it. That could be a smashing success or a baleful mess. But it is that kind of spontaneity that is the spark that starts the fire.
Every moment something is being brought into being. If we could track this with our minds, our heads would spin in no time. Underneath this stream of constant becoming is something silent and sustaining, something we can rest our entire being in. From that engendering depth we will know what is ours to bring into being. But it takes our willingness to be still, to be open, and to listen with our whole selves.
