Welcome to Day 19 of this 100-day writing challenge I’m taking on alongside my friend, Leigh Maneri.
Remember, you can always start at Day 1, even if you’re finding this on Day 99.
blessed is the person who delights in seeing the inner child in every one and the magic in all creatures who does not shun difficulty and can turn with equal reverence toward sorrow and joy who can trust fear as the balsam of courage and pain as an instrument for opening the heart who can pause to notice the delicate lustre of lichen and the undulations of the light who dares to make hope an axiom of being and is strong enough to be changed by love
a note from me
In 2016, I sat with Ayahuasca for the first time. It was a three-day, three-night ceremony, and I still enjoy thinking about what arose for me then.
One of the most intense visions I experienced was a couple the size of large dolls, waltzing around a lantern in very fancy clothes. As they twirled round and round, they began to age, until at one point, they were reduced to well-dressed skeletons.
I kept watching, and the message “joy and sorrow dance long into the night in this life” was whispered in my ear, like many medicinal messages.
Since then, I’ve worked with the pair—joy and sorrow—when I can.
They are inseparable, and there is not a time in our lives when one is not present or influencing the other from afar.
Perfect polarities.
So, it isn’t a shunning of sorrow, but a welcoming. And not clinging to joy, but deeply appreciating.
Both open our hearts to light beams of love, if you allow them.