“Oh, ho!” chuckled the Fates last week, as they affectionately patted my adorable mortal head and watched me type last Wednesday's email. “'The animal-related component didn't resonate strongly for me,' she said. Oh, ho!”
More on that in a minute.
The first totem that alighted this week was NOT an animal (oh HO, Fates), but a word+image.
Word: allow.
Image: open palms.
There was a time right after college, when I was crushed by depression and not yet open to the (major to me) possibility of taking medication, when, one afternoon, I arrived at the point where my body and soul felt too heavy to hold upright another minute. I laid the cement brick of my physical self on my stomach at the foot of the bed, near the open window. It was a gorgeous early-summer afternoon. Exquisite, warm air. Cut grass and lilacs. My thoughts were a tsunami. During a moment of reprieve, I noticed my hands were tightly clenched into fists. I was gripping life so tightly.
With all of the psychic strength I could muster, I thought I might try opening my hands. The internal resistance was almost insurmountable. Amidst such profound suffering, protection of the tender self is instinctive. I remember tears springing up and stopping short—burning the rims of my eyes as I fought to let go, to let in, to allow. I recall being amazed by how physically difficult it felt to simply open my hands and assume a position of vulnerability.
This clenching has been my way for so many years I'm pretty convinced I was born that way. It's just my style, my factory setting. I've become more skilled at releasing over the years, but I'm at a point now where I want to do more than just repeatedly unclench. I want to know what happens when I rest with my hands open. Allow possibility. Allow health. Allow abundance. Allow life. Allow what is. Allow me.
Of course, the Fates get a real kick out of this.
“That's good, Meg. That's good. Allow the universe to be what it is."
As if it's not already being what it is every nanosecond of every day. Since literally forever.
But we adorable mortals have a potent, other-worldly power that's actually nothing to sniff at: we have choice. We can change our minds, and by changing our minds, we can change our entire experience on this glossy blue planet. A mindset shift toward "allowing" is not nothing.
What happens when you allow you? What happens when you allow love? Allow money? Allow success? Allow abundance? Allow life?
Guess we'll see.
Which brings us to the second totem that alighted this week:
