March has a feel all its own. It goes back to that “lion and lamb” analogy. Winds blowing, spring on the horizon with a rainbow in our pockets. What does this month have to teach us?
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his work Laws of Nature, wrote “before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts: in full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied and it satisfies nature in all moments alike. There is no time to it. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.” Why is it so difficult for any of us to stay in the now? The memories of the past are powerful. The mind plays-off “what if” with “I should have” and constantly pulls our attention away from the moment before us.
It’s either about me or you or us and all the judgments of the past. There is no freedom. There is no currency. What we are left with are feelings of regret, blame, guilt, and shame sprinkled with our infrequent moments of glory. In essence, we have either retreated to a former place and time or reverted to old experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly. And if not for the thoughts of “what might have been” pulling us...then it’s the thoughts of “what might be” pushing us. Again, there is no freedom. There is no currency. We have our lives on hold.
We wait for the moment the winds of change die down or the rain in our fields dry up. We hover trying to glimpse the rainbow before the light has an opportunity to burst forth from the clouds. We anticipate the best and the worst. We lose our ability to see any gift before us because we are certain the gift of value is yet to come.
I am learning that we lose our connection to our central self by living in the past and future. All the thoughts of what might have been or what is yet to be become who we are today.
We miss being present.
We miss the gifts.
We miss being free, like a leafless root.
The only restoration to our self starts now.