I heard a story the other day about a life time journey up the mountain.
We start at the bottom of our journey with our possessions, the things that define us. Our photographs, clothes, status, image, title, station in life, career..all of these things bundled into a few suitcases. As we climb, the conditions get more difficult. At some point we delete some of our possessions, culling down to the ‘essentials’.
The climb gets more difficult. We do more culling. This is harder than we thought.
After a time we are down to a backpack and the clothes we wear.
The climb gets more difficult. We lose the backpack. Easier to move now.
Then we lose the jacket, the jewelry, until eventually we are down to our nakedness.
And then we reach the top of the mountain. The view is glorious. The whole world is before us, offering itself to us in totality.
We have nothing but ourselves, the bodies we arrived on earth in, no baggage, no status, nothing to distinguish who we are, other than our form.
At the top of the mountain we find we are not alone. There are others, equally naked, who have made the climb.
We sit down together, and for the very first time, we speak to each other our truth, devoid of all the baggage. There is no pretense, that was lost on the mountain, there is no righteousness, no pride, no greed…there is only self. Raw, naked, exposed.
We are free. Finally, we are free.
We dance and laugh together at the foolishness of humanity, seeking freedom in all the wrong places. It was there all along. If only we had let go…..
Love this story….so descriptive of the ‘shedding’ of our worldly ‘issues’.
Beautiful, poetic, rhythmic…essential words especially in these times. Thank you for weaving together these words in the way that you did.
Giselle
Planting Possibility Seeds
Christine,
As always, your writing glows as you do, from the inside out! I felt freedom in this as I moved up the mountain with you…imagined myself sitting naked, not in a sweat lodge, hidden from the views, but in full view and viewing all that is.
Thanks for the depth of your writing, your insights and wisdom.
Missing you and love to you!
DJ