These Hollyhocks are from a recent walk in my neighborhood. I so enjoyed their beauty. Their “true to self” quality (or the “true to self” story that I enjoyed making up about them).
And then there is “true to self” from a recent conversation with a younger man that carries wisdom of an older man as he spoke about an upcoming change in his life.
The younger man was describing some of what it is like for him to listen to his intuition, to be true to his intuition, yet at the same time, be in relationship with others about acting upon big changes.
With family. With partner. With colleagues.
This younger man was not wobbly about his inner truth. He was clear. “I need to tell them the truth so that I am true to myself.”
I love his clarity. And, in that moment, my offering was to listen to him speak what was in his mind and to listen to him share feeling that was in his heart and belly. My offering was to affirm his clarity, to nudge it by reflecting a bit of his clarity back to him.
I’m moved by this moment. Mostly by this man’s clarity. Because, it seems that what many of us do, is manipulate our clarity so that it might fit better with others, or so that it might assuage their discomfort, all at the expense of an abandoned truth within.
I’m moved by this moment because the spiritual narrative requires deep conviction, yet offers deep freedom. “True to self” is not only words, but an energy and vibration.
The young man wasn’t nervous over his changes. He wasn’t trying to comfort himself with false certainties (nor the false certainties offered by some people near to him recommending very immediate and specific goals and steps of action). The young man was again clear enough to know that he must stay in an emptiness to let the next clarity arise rather than be prematurely fussed over.
It’s simple in principle and premise. Yet in practice is perhaps a simplicity that most of us are trying to learn over a life time. It is the learning of the power and the gift of a deeply sourced inner clarity that moves us along a “becoming” path and further into a vibration of life being.
“I need to tell them the truth so that I’m true to myself.”
A bow to this man, and to the Hollyhocks found in my neighborhood.
“the spiritual narrative requires deep conviction, yet offers deep freedom. “True to self” is not only words, but an energy and vibration.”
and
“a deeply sourced inner clarity that moves us along a “becoming” path and further into a vibration of life being.”
lots of the “deep” in these words. and a resonance of depth for me, in particular related to an appointment today that brings up fear and dread and the old pattern of avoidance/hiding.
I walked our labyrinth today holding the chant of bringing “saoirse-becoming” more into the world, more into the realm of clarity, more into the trust of self on this path of conviction and freedom … and of life being.
ever grateful.
Being with Life — this holds much of it, doesn’t it Saoirse. With words. With intuitions. With feelings. With companions. With silence. A bow to it all.