The Way of the Rose

October 01, 2020 3 Comments

“We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.”—Anaïs Nin

The elections are coming. And we are being asked to vote. We are being told how important it is. And it is! But now that I have your attention I want you to know that this is not a blog post about politics. This is a blog post about choices. And voting is one of the ways we make our choices known. 

Our choices are not limited to one day of the year however. 

Every single day you vote with your time, with your attention, with your words, with your actions, with your money, and with every single choice you make about how you wish to show up in your life. You are powerful that way. 

Rose likes a little drama. She likes to make an entrance. A bold statement. I’m picturing the passionate tango dancer with a rose held gingerly between tender lips. The Diva Queen of the flowers, the infinitely wise mother, the Divine Feminine in flower form and one of the highest vibrations of unconditional love on our beloved planet. She is a wise and compassionate teacher, but her lessons are far from pain free.

The way of the Rose is truly an initiation. An initiation into the acceptance and understanding of our I AM presence and the power of our free will choices to navigate our life experiences as we face, head on, our fear based perceptions and behaviors. 

We live in a cause and effect world. And here we all are, reeling amongst the effects of many, many years of collective choices that have not been for the highest good of all. So much that was previously hidden, buried deep beneath the surface for so long, is coming up to be witnessed, to be healed. 

There is so much suffering.

But this is not new. This has been the human story for centuries and we each have contributed to the collective suffering in our own way. What we have forgotten is that we also have the power to contribute to our collective healing...again, with our choices. 

Rose awakens in me the deep understanding that suffering can be a conscious, or unconscious choice, but that all suffering is rooted in our deeply held belief of separation. Separation from the Earth, from each other and from Source.

The further away that we believe that we are from our true nature the more pain we suffer. 

Rose is the medicine that brings us back to our true nature—which is LOVE. 

Suffering is a choice, yes, but that doesn’t mean that we can avoid it altogether. As we heal our hearts, as we remember ourselves whole, we come to understand that suffering is a natural part of life, of growth. 

To live fully, to enjoy the sweetness and tenderness of the delicate Rose, we are apt to get scratched up a bit. But our bodies are so wise. As extensions of the Mother Earth herself she knows exactly how to heal herself, how to regenerate. And while she is healing, an amazing and extraordinarily simple thing happens. Over each bloody scratch a healing scab forms under which a whole new patch of skin generates. Resurrects.

It’s a freaking miracle! Right under our noses! And so mundane we fail to notice!

Or maybe we do notice, because as the skin is healing, the scab itches and pulls and we are sorely tempted to interfere with the naturally occurring process. We ignore the miracle and instead focus on the discomfort.

Each time we pick the scab off, the body has to start over and ultimately may leave an unsightly scar reminding us of each and every trauma we’ve experienced in our lives even though they are long gone. Over and over we bring the past into our now moment and project our pain and suffering into the future with worry that inevitably we will get scratched up again. 

Which we will.

But the scratches, and how we deal with them, are symbolic of how we allow life to guide us—and how (with every one of our free will choices) we expand and grow into higher and higher states of flow, joy and unity as we open to and align with our true nature. 

And so this Moon Cycle, deep diving with Rose, I have become acutely aware of how deeply embedded the thorns of suffering are within us all. Witnessing the collective thrashing round and round in circles, repeating the same old lessons, making the same old choices, over and over again, somehow expecting a different outcome. Each of us, in our own way, embodying suffering as our core truth.

Rose has been with me my whole life and indeed has been on this planet for thousands of years, her blooms spiraling open again and again to guide us back to our hearts, back to love. 

Rose has been asking me to go with the flow...with the spiraling flow of life and All That Is. To open my heart and witness the great healing that is occuring. Not to pick the scab, not to rush the process, but to instead see myself as a drop, a single thought, in the great river of life. 

And there is so much comfort there. Joy even in the knowledge that I don’t have to fight anymore. I don’t have to figure it all out. My soul just wants to flow and flow and flow....and I’m too tired to fight anymore anyway.

Around me many are struggling and scrambling onto different boats, trying to turn the ship around so to speak, trying to gain control of this miraculous flow. Trying to keep their heads above water. Panic and fear running so deep, as the false prophets line the banks screaming their warnings and trying to sell us their miracle solutions. Screaming at me how selfish I am to be simply flowing. We are all in this together right. I should be rescuing those around me...right?

This is an old story, an ancient wound, that is being picked and prodded from within and without. A great responsibility that I and so many others have carried for many lifetimes that is that we are somehow responsible for everyone else's happiness, health and wellbeing when we can barely tend to our own. If we could only do more, work harder, be more...

Such a great lie. 

Like so many of the institutions and systems (that I now see clearly as I flow past) wobbling and crumbling on their faulty foundations, I recognize them for what they are. And mostly I understand how I perpetuated them, nourished them, built them through my own free-will choices, unintentionally contributing to the great pain and suffering of this planet through my own. 

Flowing—trusting—does not feel aligned for the feint of heart and many may find it easier to continue to fight as we have always done or simply give up and succumb to the dark waters. And it is so painful to witness…my heart aches for all the pain and suffering. But I know deeply that there is no one way, no right way, to heal and we each must do it on our own, in our own way and in our own time.

So, this time is different for me. 

This now moment I’m not trying to steer. Not trying to understand, fix, or hasten the healing process. I finally see the folly in trying to do so. The folly of an ego that thinks that this is even possible. 

Rose is asking me clearly to find my heart center and to stay there. All I have to do is remember and BE the love that I am. And with every choice I make I choose love. Over and over and over again. 

I feel held by the Divine Mother and I am allowing her to support me as the scab is forming. Allowing her to spiral open my heart. 

That is the invitation from Rose for us all. To stay centered and loving to ourselves and to others especially now in this time of great upheaval.

Everything is love and we are indeed all connected and in this together. 

“All flourishing is mutual.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer

All suffering is too. 

And the more I fight and struggle and suffer, the more I create all that I am not. And the more I sink into the watery depths of despair, which I have done over and over as I have unpacked my personal suffering, the more I pull others down with me. 

Rose tells me over and over that what is in my highest good is indeed in the highest good for all. This is the process of becoming. And this is mirrored in every way within the collective.

Moving through the darkest of times we have an opportunity to step out of the reality of separation and fear-based perceptions and ready ourselves to birth a new reality of union, of unity. Where there is balance held between the Divine Feminine intuition and the Divine Masculine intellect. Where love is perfectly embodied in form and where we can all experience what it means to flow. 

Getting scratched up along the way is part of the process, part of the journey, and the more we fight the deeper the scratches, and of course, it is absolutely our choice if we wish to pick the scabs, and repeat the process...or not, and instead take our sovereign places within the great spiral of life and flow on. 

What do you choose?

Dig deeper with Rose (JOY) here.

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