MaXIMIze by Shepherding Your Being

I ran across this quote on Twitter today (@philo_quotes):

The human being is not the lord of beings but the shepherd of Being. – Martin Heidegger

With all that is going on – thinking I’m moving forward in life only to fall backward again and feeling like I’m stuck in the round about even though I know healing and moving on is truly an iterative process – this quote struck a chord deep inside of me.

How can I be a better shepherd of my part of Being?

Another item I read today – Joey Garcia’s advice column “AskJoey” in the Sacramento News and Review, 3 May 2012 issue – also struck a chord in me. In her column, Joey notes, “Every relationship is a invitation into spiritual evolution.”  She goes on to advise the questioner to dive into the waves of loss or abandonment that may move into her life, for beneath the waves is “…clarity about the amazing person you are.” She further advises the questioner to “…ride the [waves] and practice deeper self-love and compasson.”

And to cap that, on the same page in the print edition, the Meditation of the week is:

Everything that needs to be said, has been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again. – Andre Gide

The question following this quote is:

What voice do you ignore?

I would beg the question, what voice do you pay attention to?

To follow on to that thought, what voice should you pay attention to?

In other words, where should your focus be, really? The fear of drowning in the waves of negative thoughts and emotions? Or diving into those waves, going below the surface to see the beauty that lies beneath?

I’ll end this post with a poem that I wrote on the last day of April – which was National Poetry Month, by the way – that encapsulates the journey, the riding of the waves:

Ride the wave of pain
Until it dumps you on the shore
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off,
Slough through the sand until
The tide pulls you out
To ride the wave once more

You can substitute other negative words for the word “pain” in the first line – fear, grief, anger all come to my mind.

I would also add the idea that at some point, either the waves subside or they toss you so far up on the beach that you can easily scurry away from the sand to the forest and meadows above.

As I stated in an earlier post, a setback is at set-up for a comeback.

Namaste!