Knocking
from the Inside
“I
have lived on the lip
of
insanity, wanting to know the reasons,
knocking
on a door. It opens.
I've
been knocking from the inside.”
Rumi
I
love the story of the prodigal son who takes his inheritance while
he's young and goes to a foreign country where he fritters it away on
loose women and red wine. When he runs out of cash and sobers up, he
realizes he's got to work if he wants to eat. So he takes a job
feeding pigs, the only job he can find, and when he discovers that
he's envying the pigs their slops, he turns his face toward home. You
know the rest of the story—his father welcomes him, prepares a
feast and rejoices in his son's return. The young man had to spend
his wealth and his youth before he could understand that he'd had
every thing he needed all along.
Most
all of us take a spiritual journey to a foreign land, whether it's by
engaging in all the behaviors denied to us as children, or by using
substances that loosen our inhibitions and our tongues. Many of us
spend a lifetime searching for answers that seem just out of
reach—trying to discover the 'why's' of life. Why did my parents
treat me like that? Why did my husband/wife leave me? Why am I not
getting the things I want even though I try as hard as I can? 'Why'
questions often have no good answers. We spend all our energy trying
to solve an unsolvable puzzle.
Eventually,
we turn our faces toward home. We discover, like Rumi, that the only
answers we're likely to get are the ones we already have. The best
answer to 'why' questions is this: “It doesn't matter. Forgive, and
move on.” As soon as we are able to let go, forgive, and move on,
we realize that the door we've been knocking on is already open and
that abundant life is waiting just outside.
In
the spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment