I’ve never resonated with the word Faith
In my mind it was too wrapped up in religion
And rigid rules
And how I seemed to always be doing it wrong—in relationships, or work, or just in Life
It seemed too much like wishful thinking
Or burying my head in the sand
Because what if the things I was putting my faith in didn’t work out in the way my mind wanted?
What if I lost people that I had faith would be ok?
Does that mean I’m unworthy of faith?
Ultimately my mind didn’t really understand what faith meant
And as I’ve lived a Life
That has been full of tragedy and triumph
And every shade in between
And as I’ve practiced being with it all
Living everything that Life is offering
I came to learn a different way to think of faith
Using a different string of words
To describe what is very intangible:
~Life is not always likable, but it is trustable~ (Mary O’Malley)
Those words describe dropping the struggle with anything that’s happening
It’s the struggle that causes the most pain
In those words I can let go and move forward
I can see and trust Life as a process of unfolding
Giving experiences that challenge me
And also hurt me
That give me opportunities to accept everything
To unhook from unhelpful things my mind is telling me
To be present with what is happening
To look at obstacles as ways to grow
That give me chance after chance after chance to live as the person I choose to be, no matter what is happening
To life a Full life, which includes everything—pain, joy, rapture, frustration, isolation, adventure, intimacy, failure, Love, and sometimes even death
I’ve learned that we came here to experience it all
With no distinction between what our minds would label good or bad
To experience everything directly
Without defense
Even our worst fears
And to experience that
No matter what is happening
There is a place deep inside of us
That looks out on the world
A place from which we witness everything
An anchor to hold us steady in the eye of the storm of Life
This place from which we look out
Is the same place we viewed Life when we were little
It’s the same place we viewed Life 10 years ago
And last week
This is the locus from which we can learn to make room for whatever we are feeling
To see thoughts as just thoughts
To be present with it all
And to act in line with what we want to stand for
In the midst of this ongoing
Ever changing
Experience called Life
From this place
We can experience aliveness
In moments of joy—and also in moments of pain
Much Love to you ❤️🙏🏻✨
Photo credit: Tristan Woods