Clear
Vessel
“The
truth is, if you take the medicine of what you know and marry it to
the medicine of who you are, you have the chance to become a clear
vessel.”
Mark Nepo
Using the image of water,
how would you describe yourself right now? Would you be crystal
clear, sparkling with sunlight? Would you be clear in shallow places,
murky deeper down? Would you be a river after days of rain, muddy and
laden with debris? Would you-as-water run deep or shallow; rushing
over rocks or as still as a lake in early morning? Does the image
change from day to day? Some days clear, some murky, some muddy? How
do you feel when you are each of these?
Most of us have days of
each, or possibly, hours of each every day—at least, I do. We allow
our emotions to churn us up, and cloud the water of who we are and
how we view the world. We may be clear as air with our loved ones,
but murky with people we don't know or don't like very much—or vice
versa. We learn early in life how to protect ourselves by changing
who we are with different people—it's an adaptive skill that serves
us well when we are vulnerable children. The downside may be that we
lose sight of who we actually are—which part of us is authentic,
and which is an act.
Becoming a clear vessel
takes work—it requires clearing out the sludge, and cleaning up the
parts of us that muddy the water. When we are clear, we can see
others as they are without smearing any of our muck on them. We can
channel clarity and help them to wash away their own pain and
suffering without taking it into ourselves. When we get very clear
about what is authentically us, what our true nature is, what our
real motives are in any given situation, then we can stand on our
feet and be solid and reliable for others. We can become a clear
vessel for light to flow through to illuminate a hurting world.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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