The Third Holy Night & Iggy

DECEMBER 27, 2006

The third "Soul Quality" that Lynn Jericho invites us to contemplate is Humility.
The questions for tonight are: "Can you lovingly and with blessed
humility make a list of your "weaknesses?" What aspects of you are
hidden with shame, guilt or neglect? Where in your complexity are you
"less than?" Can you write down ten weaknesses?
Counting
tonight, we have ten Holy Nights remaining. If each night in the"good
light" of your own self-compassion, you innocently "wonder at" one
weakness from your list you will begin to see new directions and
possibilities open up. Humility is the way to both self-acceptance and
self-development.
Have a meditative conversation with your
weakness. Ask it questions. What are you teaching me? Why are you here?
What would happen to you if I embraced your presence in my life."
I write...
_Strong, when not..._
_Control, free my anxiety..._
_Fill this emptiness, again, and again, and again..._
_Compare, only to find I am less than..._
_Forget, who I am..._
_Worry, anything, anytime, anywhere..._
_Think, shoulds, coulds, woulds..._
_Stop, no spontaneous bursts into song and play..._
_Hide, my light, my gifts..._
_Drama, so all will leave me alone and I can make space to take care, of me..._
_These are the cracks into the dark places,_
_the folds in my heart,_
_where battles rage,_
_where I die, again and again,_
_fail,_
_fall,_
_and become the soft earth,_
_the rich and fertile soil_
_that holds all that cannot be said,_
_spoken,_
_or penned on paper,_
_recorded in a day, a year, or a lifetime,_
_but remembered in a silent moment,_
_where soft candlelight illuminates_
_this moment out of time_
_and gently rocks me home..._
© Lea Goode-Harris
December 27th, 2006
_Iggy_
This lesson and experience came yesterday in the midst of contemplating humility. I was witness to loosing our neighborhood cat, Iggy. It is
hard today, to not feel that I failed… that I could not bring Iggy back
by healing his broken body. I was there instead to help him move on, to
be with Iggy’s “day-friend,” my next-door neighbor and the young-girl-driver, and later to hold Iggy’s human as she sobbed over her loss
of her cat. Today, Iggy is helping me to realize that that is one of
things I do best, it is not a failing, or weakness, but a gift, my
medicine, to help others move on… Stepping along the mystery-bridge we
all travel…
My tears today are maybe a celebration of what I am.
Take the time today, to love your pet a little more dearly, or to
remember the pets and animals long gone who have blessed you along your
life path. They are precious, precious gifts…
_Iggy…_
_Oh Iggy,_
_I looked out my window_
_this morning for you…_
_I looked for your long_
_and lazy strides,_
_Lion-King of the neighborhood,_
_surveying all your domain,_
_greeter of all two and four legged,_
_any who would bend to your meows_
_and wrap-around hugs_
_that begged stopping_
_important rushing to feel your powder-fur_
_and sandpaper kisses…_
_That moment_
_yesterday afternoon_
_when I knew,_
_just knew that all was not right,_
_and I flew down my stairs to be at your side_
_and help you over,_
_over that mystery-bridge_
_with the grieving young girl_
_who’s flash of metal caught your inquisitive nature,_
_and your dear friend across the street_
_who shared his porch_
_with your catnaps and timeouts,_
_three configurations unknown until_
_that very moment of your leaving,_
_gathered to say good-bye with our tears and hugs_
_of strangers no longer..._
© Lea Goode-Harris
December 28, 2006