Once I had a dream in which I was walking through this huge, huge house full of windows and light and lots of beautiful plants and flowers. As I continued to walk, the rooms grew more and more narrow, and darker. Finally I arrived at this slide. There were lots of folks climbing the ladder and sliding down through this shoot into even darker darkness. I was also aware of the snakes in the shoot. I actually climbed the ladder and got to the top. I peered into this pit, and as so many of us do… tried to follow the crowd into the shute… because that’s what we’re supposed to do, right? But amazingly what happened was that I wouldn’t fit. My shoulders were too broad, my birthing hips too wide. And so, I climbed down and wandered back through the house where the rooms grew larger and brighter and freer. And when I woke from that dream, I woke with these words, “Don’t even try to fit into spaces that are too small for you.”
DON’T EVEN TRY TO FIT INTO SPACES THAT ARE TOO SMALL FOR YOU.
DON’T EVEN TRY TO FIT INTO SPACES THAT ARE TOO SMALL FOR YOU.
Mark Nepo often says it so beautifully for me:
Breaking Surface: From Mark's book, Suite for the Living
Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced, no father
who won't let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can't be done.
Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance alone
or go where no one
has yet to go.
You are the only explorer.
Your heart, the unreadable compass.
Your soul, the shore of a promise
too great to be ignored.
My friends, when sightless voices urge you to be less, to be small, to give up, to give in to their own fears and tightness of heart and mind… follow the truth that is free inside of you. Follow the paths of love and light that open you time and again to your own beauty which is divine. I am trusting with my whole heart that God made you and me and all of us in God’s image… which is joyful and wide in love and grace. We are seen deeply. We are valued. We are loved. Come down from the ladder to the open fields and flowing streams. I’ll meet you there.
Breaking Surface: From Mark's book, Suite for the Living
Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced, no father
who won't let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can't be done.
Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance alone
or go where no one
has yet to go.
You are the only explorer.
Your heart, the unreadable compass.
Your soul, the shore of a promise
too great to be ignored.
My friends, when sightless voices urge you to be less, to be small, to give up, to give in to their own fears and tightness of heart and mind… follow the truth that is free inside of you. Follow the paths of love and light that open you time and again to your own beauty which is divine. I am trusting with my whole heart that God made you and me and all of us in God’s image… which is joyful and wide in love and grace. We are seen deeply. We are valued. We are loved. Come down from the ladder to the open fields and flowing streams. I’ll meet you there.
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