The ruins out there might be full of riches...

2: "Some things in this world are better left where they lie. But if you know where to look, these ruins are full of riches"... (From the movie, 9)

2: Inspiration

As we pick through the past and live in moments filtered, we stumble across all sorts of demons and joys alike. Some things in this world are better left where they lie for sure. But when we open ourselves to an honest and compassionate search in the ruins of our pasts we may find a variety of items that when repurposed yield great new value to our lives...

Live in the past and "the now" is ruined; but sift through the ruins of the past to glean the best bits of scrap and the present becomes new and full of potential as creative repurposing and inspiration. But there are always those demons lurking in the ruins; there are always those things from our past that seek to break our spirits; we carry them forward if we are not kind to ourselves and leave them where they lie. They, these moments of the past, make us want to run and perhaps miss the gleaning... 

We must choose not to run...

Run Away

9: Salvation

is what most human beings would like to do a good deal of the time. It is the flight part of the fight or flight deeply in our bodies and our past, it is our protection, an evolutionary momentum and a biological memory deep in the human body that allowed our ancestors to survive to another day and bequeath to us, generations later, this day. To want to run away is an essence of being human, it transforms any staying through the transfigurations of choice. To think about fleeing from circumstances, from a marriage, a relationship; from a work is part of the conversation itself and helps us understand the true distilled nature of our own reluctance. We are perhaps most fully incarnated as humans strangely, when part of us does not want to be here, or doesn’t know how to be here. Presence is only fully understood and realized through fully understanding our reluctance to show up.

To make a friend of the part of us that wants nothing to do with the difficulties of work, of relationship, of doing what is necessary, is to learn humility; to cultivate self-compassion and to sharpen a necessary sense of humor and a merciful approach to both self and other.

…We know intuitively that most of the time, we should not run, we should stay and look for a different way forward, … but we are wiser, more present, more mature, and more understanding when we realize we can never flee from the need to run away.  --David Whyte