Seven years ago I posted this poem on this date. I was struggling, mightily, with the experiences of my life.
My relationship to the poem has completely changed, as my relationship to my life has completely changed. How deeply blessed I have been. Deeply, deeply.
In Chinese Medicine there is an acupuncture point, Zhubin (Guest House), that I use as a focal point when working with patients who have become stuck processing difficult experiences and allowing their spirit to feel free and light again.
We talk about opening the windows in a closed up space to invite in our guests, letting the sun and the breeze and careful preparations for welcoming a weary traveller clean out the dusty accumulations we have tossed into our heart like a storage closet of yesterday’s despairs.
We talk about inviting our pains into our spirit like guests that come and go, not knowing what gifts they are bringing with them; even the mean old uncle who is rude at the dinner table is part of the family and has a role to play in our growth.
We talk about letting these honored guests take up residence with deep comfort and welcome for a time, and then the host’s responsibility to kindly and firmly invite them to GTFO if inclined to overstay when the time for visiting is over, sending them back into the wide world with the whole measure of love in our heart.
We talk about about how the things we once thought would break us became our most treasured teachers who helped us Become more than we could have otherwise been.
How beautiful, and strange, is this life in which it’s silly Facebook that reminds me of an ancient piece of poetry that somehow says the same things to the heart as this alchemical medicine I am blessed to practice.
It’s such a beautiful day to be alive, no matter what guests we are welcoming. Please allow yourself to love all of it, my friends!
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