"Root" My latest pen and watercolor is an expression of ancestral connection through Earth and Sky.
I sit here, looking out the front glass doors and windows of the A-frame cabin we’re living in. I realize the light is dancing beautifully. It’s been raining and grey for days and days. This welcome fresh energy eases my trauma-brain’s tendency to get up and go, do the next thing. It reminds me to pause and reflect. Pause and allow. Pause and breathe.
Now, in a calm state, I remember why I sat down, to feel the feelings of this week’s inner work. The mind-space opens up when the body knows it is safe to be still and relaxed. This week we’ve had a powerful Aries/Libra full moon. So I’m making time to reflect on ego and harmony. Aries energy represents ego and Libra energy represents harmony.
Having been married just over 13 years now, I think I can safely say that I’m starting to hopefully perhaps learn a little something from the activity of intimate partner relationship. Truly, I could give myself more credit but, I feel that I’m just beginning to learn how to let go of expectations. It’s tricky.
So this is a meditation on expectations I suppose. Let’s use the metaphor of this week’s full moon energy to unpack that a bit and weave it with the expressive art I’m sharing with you today.
We want what we want, which is the ego. That’s Aries energy with the need to be in control of self and act from self. There is a need also to exercise deep acceptance so that we can allow space for the energy of the others in our lives. That’s the Libra energy, seeking harmony and peace.
Lately, old wounds have been coming up for more healing. The collective global consciousness is expanding. With that a sense of emotional overwhelm and intellectual overstimulation. We feel so much all the time, not just our own pain, but the pain of others.
It takes radical open curiosity to make time to look for the joy of life itself. Joy is the underlying fundamental energy of life that wants to remind us of the magic of life. When we can drop the story of how our inner child/teenager thinks things ‘should’ be, we are more available to that innate magic.
The need for safety can sometimes create a barrier. Once needed for protection, it becomes a cage of the soul, guarding against real connection. This defense, this shielding, can get in the way of receiving what might be very useful energy that can help us learn and grow. It can become the very thing that keeps us stuck in the past and unavailable to the joy of intimate connection with life itself and others.
I’m learning a new level of what open curiosity can do. It is a simple yet powerful mindfulness practice that can help ease tension and inner struggle. It is always there for us when we remember to let go of the need to know, control, fix, or solve. And with its power, something amazing happens. The light comes back and a whole new angle presents itself. A softening. A landing. A peace to lean into.
The painting I share with you today is about the place inside us that needs safety and security, the basis for the part that wants to expand upward and out. The lines and color express the natural, complex raw inside of our being. There is a mystical aspect going on too. The tree has its own consciousness, its own inner children. Its roots, embedded with the vital life force energy of mycelia. Stillness and a dynamism spread far and wide.
It shows how we are always supported, always connected, always deeply nourished by the infinite web of life itself. It shows that we are our own source of safety, which is our interconnectedness. By sharing our energy with each other, we strengthen, we fortify. But this takes a profound curiosity, a letting go of preconceived ideas about what we ‘think’ is happening. It requires unlearning so that we can create a new inner intuitive understanding of what is happening between us in the here and now of things. It requires becoming unguarded and taking the risk to find out more.
When we drop the story, we can unravel the pain together and sit in a new space of vulnerability and humble receptivity rather than defensive posturing and clinging. Our need for security is natural. Once we are conscious of the walls we’ve put up to keep others out, we can start to question that and find out what we think we are protecting ourselves from.
Healing in relationship is about shedding the layers of ego and consciously venturing to let go of definitions of what you think you know about the other person, and even yourself. It’s about being open to what this new now moment has to offer, what it is here to show you.
It’s a risk worth taking for a reward beyond measure, true expansion beyond who or what you thought you were. It gives the gift of soul freedom. It feels raw and real and uncomfortable. That means growth. That means living in the deep end, no need to live in the protected shallow waters.
Healing in relationship is an adventure of the heart. It brings up all the wounds. And if you let it, it heals them too.
for more about Rachel’s work, visit www.RachelChase.com.