Ironically, as active as I am, I hate backtracking. Whenever possible, I take “one trip”. From the car with arms full of groceries, or from the basement with arms full of laundry, backpacks, dirty dishes, and balancing a cup of coffee. Inevitably, something (or everything) falls and I lose the whole load. Or I make it to the door and can’t get through unless I set something down.
Today is about looking at the loads we carry, and how they prevent us from crossing the threshold we are standing on.
Mark Nepo says we all do this. “We do this with groceries, with paint, with stories we are determined to share. We do this with our love, our sense of truth, even with our pain. It’s such a simple thing, but in a moment of ego, we refuse to put down what we carry in order to open the door.”
I feel like life keeps trying to teach me this lesson. We cannot hold on to what we carry and move forward at the same time. We must put down the load, and then take only what we need to step through the door.
Breathing is an excellent teacher of this principle. We can’t take IN a breath of fresh life-sustaining oxygen without first letting OUT a breath of used-up and toxic carbon dioxide. Each breath can be a lesson…breathe in what you need in this moment, let go of what has already served you. IN, OUT, IN, OUT.
Today, let’s look at the threshold we are standing on. A threshold we are having trouble crossing. It could be at work, at home, or simply the doorway to greater personal peace.
Is there something you are carrying that is preventing you from walking through this door?
What can you set down, where can you exhale and lighten your load?
Breathe freely now…and open the door.
