Change is always, always, always happening!! The “yet to be”is evolving even in our sleep. Sometimes I like to bless what is coming into my life before I know what it is. Call it a kind of inner hospitality.
Phrases posted on Facebook May 2024
It doesn’t matter whether we engage with something of no importance or with something of great importance. In both cases we are changed. Acting we are also acted upon. It is a fact of everything being connected and One. If I want care in my life I must act with carefulness.
I wonder if there is a prior plan for our lives . . . something laid out for us from the start, perhaps not in particulars, but in themes and tendencies? We may receive hints, glimmers of what we are meant to do and become. Why not give those hints our ears and a welcome? There’s no point being someone else. Each person’s journey is needed, unique and precious. We are called to be who we really are.
If we long for a new “yet to be” we may have to do something that feels foreign and perhaps challenges our self-limitations. But it can also be simple and silly: stay in pajamas all day, eat dessert first, wear mis-matched socks and no underwear. They are all little ways to break the usual pattern so that something new has a chance to surface and inspire a new chapter.
There can of course be a tendency to procrastinate. We end up not doing what we want to do. It’s a silent enemy . . . a “yet to do” that keeps the “yet to be” at bay. In my experience it takes a deep, acknowledged desire to keep me moving towards what my heart longs for.
Continuing from the last post I am reminded of what Thich Nhat Hahn, the great Vietnamese teacher of mindfulness, teaches – practice, practice, practice We may be devoted in our minds but not until we practice what we are devoted to will we be on our true path. So much of the “yet to be” is practice, practice, practice.
There seems to be a kind of sequence for how to encourage the “yet to be” to come to fulfillment. In the next few posts I want to share what I think the pattern is.
The first step is to decide what it is we hope and long for. It needs to be very clear.
Here’s a mundane example of what doesn’t work. “I want to lose ten pounds and feel good about my body.” Then comes, “I just have to have a double scoop of chocolate ice cream.”
The desires cancel each other out. Coming to a clear understanding of the “yet to be” we wish deeply for is crucial or ambivalence will bring us the same old, same old.
Once we have clarified what it is we truly long for, it helps a lot to imagine it vividly. This involves the whole body. What does you’re “yet to be” look like? What does it feel like?
Taste like? What does it give you permission to do and be? This is not fantasizing but deep imaging. We can’t go were we can’t imagine.
Continuing from the last post it follows that we need to have the faith that our “yet to be” already exists. This is crucial. I think of this like the stories I have heard of African women singing to the babies they long for and hope to give birth to.. They sing the child into presence, feel it already in their arms, name it and love it. It’s about speaking or singing out loud. The universe is listening.
Then back to basics, that is, doing our part which is practice, practice, practice. It is to daily engage in some way (big or small) honoring our “yet to be” with action and remembrance.
This is not about being obsessive. It’s about being practical.
Lastly, comes the paradox of letting it all go and trusting that the “yet to be” will show up in its own good time. Often being simply grateful allows it to come. In my experience that often feels as if it has arrived all on its own.
Sometimes there cannot be a new “yet to be” without letting go of something long held and thought to be essential. That’s a tough one! Most of us have been there at one time or another. To let go of what once sustained us takes courage and a willingness to proceed without guarantees.
“To them that have more shall be given” is a phrased we have heard often. Is not “to have” a consciousness gratitude for that which we already have? We are assured by that Biblical saying that when we acknowledge what is already good it will bring us ever new and good “yet to be’s”. Our gratitude and acceptance of the present gifts around us is the key.
Looking backwards on our experiences we can see how our lives have unfolded one “yet to be” after the other. There were difficulties and losses as well as joys and accomplishments.
I believe that the “yet to be’s” of yesteryears are still alive in some transformed way today. We grew because of them and whatever awaits our unfolding will be a catalyst for more growth. Our souls have endless capacities to encompass more living and growing.
