“Okay,” said November, washing the gold from the trees, spilling it all over the road and the lawn, “Enough of that. Now, let’s get down to business.”
It’s as if she has a switch of some kind that she flicks half-way through her stay. We’ve had our spell of magnificence. Now comes the rain, and the dark, and the cold.
It makes me want to hibernate deep in my cave, and not come back out until the berries are ripe.
I want the long green of summer, and its warmth and light.
I growl to myself. It all went away far too soon.
But just as I was thinking that and feeling like quite a crabby bear, my eyes fell on an index card that’s pinned above my desk.
“How easy can I let this be?” it says.
And all at once, I remember.
I love those words: “How easy can I let this be?” The moment they wash into my awareness, a kind of gentle softness flows through me. I remember that I can let this be easy: the rain, the dark, the cold.
What did I think I had to steel myself against? Why did I think it had to be hard?
“Easy” is just a state of letting-things-be, and being with them. And all you have to do to get there is to let go of your preconceptions of how things “should” be, or of wanting them to be different than they are.
When things seem hard, it’s because we’re reacting to an old movie in our heads instead of responding to what is real right now.
Right now, it is raining, and when I let myself be at ease with that, I hear the sound of the raindrops softly striking against my window pane and see them shimmer as they slide down the studio’s antique glass. They look a bit like jewels against the sketch of wind-blown woods behind them.
It’s cold out tonight. But when I am at ease with that and step outside, my skin feels awake and alive, and a fresh alertness brightens my mind. And when I come back inside, the warmth of the house wraps around me and welcomes me.
Easy lets you pay attention and to ride the moment’s flow.
Even when the moment holds pain, or regret, or sorrow, if you can put aside your resistance to it and allow it to be what it is, and allow yourself to experience it fully, you will bear it with so much more depth and grace.
Easy lets you discover the moment’s meaning. It points you toward what you are doing or could do, right now, easily.
Easy is a kind of listening – as if you are hearing a new sound. It’s listening to what is around you, and to what is within – and that is always new, for the world and you are ever-changing and this moment never was before. Easy allows you to embrace it and opens you to its wholeness and wonder.
Try it. With a sense of curiosity, just ask yourself, “How easy can I let this be?” and notice what happens.
Wishing you delightful discoveries!
Warmly,
Susan