Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
As we work to tend to the poles of opposites, we spend a lot of time traversing the pathways between two points. Well-trodden paths are comfortable; we know their contours and remember where the ups and downs are. My feet can take me from my bed to the bathroom even if I am still half asleep!
While familiar pathways can be helpful; they can also be a hindrance. If I travel the same path for too long, I run the risk of getting stuck in the deepening ruts. Deep, dry ruts, unlike deep wells, can become toxic places for stagnancy and extremism. New life, fullness, and transformation require stepping off the well-worn path. At times, we must let go of security, comfort and control if we are to grow.
Taking different steps and forging new paths is not easy. The work is usually messy and disorienting. In the wilderness, clear signs and carefully laid paths disappear. We no longer know what we thought we knew. The darkness of the forest can be not only messy, but also downright scary at times.
But it can also be freeing and invigorating to be lost, to not know already what will happen, even before I take the next step. When I let go of the old, and release my grip on the comfort of control, I am often surprised. I am gifted with a wild abundance that I would not have known on the familiar path. In releasing the known, the unknown becomes my friend.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- What pathways, actions, or thought patterns are most comfortable for you? Which do you tend to get stuck in?
- When did you last step off the well-trodden path, letting yourself feel lost, disoriented, or unsure? What was the result?
- Can you think of a rut you’re stuck in now? What would it look like to release the known and embrace the unknown?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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