Hello Dear Ones!

Our quote for this week’s topic – Resistance: Grace Under Fire – is from Eckhart Tolle:

One could say that going through loss is the great awakener. It is a potential opening if you don’t run away from it. What is usually condemned as ‘bad’ by the mind and the mind-made self is actually grace coming into your life.

[Note: the BOLD is my entry.]

When I began my search for ways to approach this subject, I immediately went to Ecosia to find a suitable definition for the word resistance. Here’s what I found:

Resistance:

* opposition: opposition to somebody or something

* refusal to give in: refusal to accept or comply with something

Opposition, refusal … both are actions of pushing against something. Now, when I push against something I often perceive that something to be negative. (I say ‘often’ because I have studied Taoist T’ai Chi and the exercise know as ‘Push Hands’ is a cooperative activity of the flowing and balance of chi between individuals.)

Suffice it to say, my crisis of spirit this week involved a recognition of a lifelong belief that had incapacitated my ability to grow into a deeper, spiritual and more fulfilling life. Though I was willing to acknowledge the belief as one that no longer serves my best interest, this awareness opened the lid of what became a Pandora’s Box of interlaced chaos as it affected every aspect of my being!

So when something becomes unruly, out of control or downright unmanageable, what is the easiest and most natural human thing to do about it? Yup, ignore or resist it! I went into major resistance – and did exactly what Tolle’s quote (above) suggests, I “condemned as ‘bad’ by the mind and the mind-made self” all aspects of myself, and my Self, that had affected the negative outcome of this limiting belief. The result was inner trauma. I had literally condemned my own self as being ‘bad’ and responsible for my current dilemma! I had literally tossed myself, and my Self, onto the fire of all that needed to be purged – burned – before I could move on to a better life. A very unhealthy a thing to do …

But then two delicious things happened. A twitter acquaintance, Aki, offered her support and friendship: encouraging me to feel a hopeful clarity with each day as I moved through the necessary changes that were occurring because of this revelation. The other was the above quote from Eckhart Tolle suggesting that this situation was, in fact, an opportunity to grow into grace.

Grace. What does growing into grace mean to me? I went back to the internet to do some research on this and the following from answers.com resonated well with me:

1. Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people.
2. The state of being protected or sanctified by the favor of God.
3. An excellence or power granted by God.

If any or all of those qualities were being bestowed upon my life by the Divine, what right had I to refuse them? To grow into grace, to expand my own self, and my Self, to become more, to live life more fully, richly, profoundly – well, I needed to do several things:

1. honour the revelation (honour – not repel or resist)
2. burn off that which I do NOT want (the old results that never worked in my own best interests)
3. forgive myself (the toughest of all 7 steps!)
4. step into the beauty of the potential that was being offered to me
5. stop resisting
6. begin accepting
7. open up to grace and – as my friend Aki suggested – feel a hopeful clarity with each new day

Just yesterday I was able to send the following response to my new e-friend: “If today is an indicator, I am gaining clarity – slowly, a breath at a time”. I am making progress. The fire of resistance is burning down. Like the phoenix, my potential shall rise from the ashes. There is the spark of hopeful clarity radiating out from my soul …

In Light and Laughter,

Marcia