marigolds & our minds
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other"
doesn't make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell
you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep."
-Rumi
I love this quote from Rumi. I love the invitation to stretch into the spaciousness beyond the dualities of right or wrong, good or bad, this or that. I love the idea of language and words evaporating before we even have the chance to say them, meeting there together beyond language's own limits and the barriers of our limited understanding, and instead surrendering and softening into the grass and simply listening for all the whispers of wisdom just wanting to be heard, received, and returned to me and you.
I love how Rumi asks us not to go back to sleep, to stay awake, to become conscious and aware of all that is here with us, a part of us, within us, and around us. The veil, the divider, the space between wakefulness and sleep is so fragile and thin. It all feels like aliveness to me, and the honoring of the lives within each of our realms of reality. It feels like practice to me, the very act of staying clear, staying focused on what is real, true, and just. It feels like love to me and the very roadmap for remaining in that light.
I have been working on many things within myself, as well as manifesting what can be outside myself. This work requires dedication and a discipline that can only set one free. I have been working on ways I can take the language I know and weave it in a way that allows more of myself to see who I am and reflect that into the world through this very format and the long and lingering goal of my first book. It’s a story of me and the struggles that have allowed me to awaken, to see, and to cultivate an empathy that keeps me from crossing the doorsill for too long. It’s within me. I just need to trust the labors of love and allow it to be birthed. And when I do, these words will precede it all. For that’s exactly what this story has led me to. No more right or wrong. No more this or that. No more pointing the finger in isolation and instead opening the very palm, mind, and heart to how all impacts all. The only villain is the veil. And at any time, with diligence and effort, it can and will be removed.
Be it coincidence, power, or the Sacred, these last few weeks I have been allowing my mind to rest on the images of marigolds when I sit in the morning—a field of orange and gold flowers dancing with me, rooted and rising with me, protecting me from the doubts of my own ego, limits, and scars. I was invited into that field and practice through a spiritual teacher who shared that it would be beneficial for me to work with the marigolds as they want to support me and my second chakra, Svadhishthana, our energetic body of pleasure, flow, sweetness, and creativity. Like anything, it took me some time to finally let my mind feel and see that field swirling and twirling in the sunlight around me. Yet it has been seen and felt, and somehow, in my very backyard, without me ever planting a physical seed myself, a marigold has risen through the weeds and is in full bloom.
I find it powerful and beyond accidental. If within weeks my mind has found that space within and somehow conspired with the outer world to grow one right within my eye’s reach, imagine what could be possible for us all, now and in the future, if we centered our minds on the very things, the very fields, and all their findings and flourishing, that could and would, that can and will, absolutely set us free.
What if the very field Rumi is inviting us into is the mind? And all the ways we have power in what we think? Producing our very thoughts into the world, the projections of our beliefs, whether limited or abundant, fearful or at ease, fixed or growing—what if we could harvest a world where we are resourced, rooted, and rising into the very essence of all we were born to be?
Our minds are powerful, dear ones.
Break down the doorways and bring light through all the illusions of your own mind. Let it breathe, let it be, and let it create a vision for you and us all that can restore us to ease.
I will continue to visualize the marigolds as well as doing the very work in the world that sets my soul free. I believe in our visions. I believe in our ability to generate peace.
The question becomes: What do you believe? And does it actually support your fullness, your freedom, your birthright of every field of opportunities? And if it is limiting you, dear one, it is also limiting me.
