Do you ever forget that you love the people you love? Like the people you live with or the person you’re married to… and then you remember and probably have to apologize, right? It’s like our mind takes over and goes away from the truth and the reality, from Love. But we can always remember. Remembering is the important part.
Re-membering, as in putting back together, bringing the parts back to the whole. Like the opposite of dis-membering.
Sometimes I am put back together by yoga, or meditation, or doing work that I do like writing a prayer, officiating a wedding, or a service… because I drop into a place where my mind and its preferences take a back seat. And sometimes I drop into this place by accident, or by Grace. It seems like also a thought of questioning my own seriousness can bring it about in an instant.
This happened to me recently and I was just walking around my house, going about ordinary things but I was aware that I was aware. It was like I was aware that I am inside this body, for now, and playing this role of me. It all seems very temporary and fun.
Background note for this story: My husband and I have this ongoing silent war – if you’re married you’re familiar with these. We have one over me not turning off that light over the sink and him not closing the garage door.
So, on this particular day, as I was enjoying my state of Awareness, I felt a chill and went over and opened the door to the garage to find that the garage door was open. I hit the button and closed it. My hubby caught all this and said “If you would focus half as much on turning off the lights as you do on the garage door… HUFF !” On another day when I was forgetting myself I would have, and I have, defended my position or snapped back something sarcastic (Did you know the origin of the word sarcasm means ‘to tear flesh’?!)… but I just acknowledged that and silently agreed. He was absolutely right. And it just went through me. Didn’t hurt a bit.
Because judgment and righteousness dismember us.
Resentment dismembers us,
Our stories dismember us.
A story that my partner doesn’t care enough about me or listen to me… That denies my wholeness and the love that I have inside… the Love that we are made of. When I’m re-membered …I don’t need him to love me really, or to close the garage door. Those are not his job, they’re mine.
Our relationships are great though because they point out where we splintered off a piece from the whole. We came here whole and complete. Maybe we took on some negative things that people, like our parents, said or implied or did as truth about ourselves and we’re still carrying it around, saying it to ourselves now. Like I’m not worthy or not good enough, or some other nonsense. And then our partner pokes at that particular area and we’re like OUCH! Well, good! Then we know we can heal that tender spot, or reclaim that or reject the bullshit story.
Judgment and needing to be right continue to dismember us. When we think about it, if we are all part of the One, the Whole, as it says in Hindu and Yoga philosophy, or in some traditions they say ‘all part of God’s family’, then of course it’s damaging to be opposed to a part of that. It’s like your left hand fighting with your right hand. It’s ridiculous. Sometimes my 5-yr.-old and I get into power struggles. I want her to do something and I’m being very stern and serious and she’s being very strong and defiant… then one or both of us starts laughing just from the looks on our faces.
Even just thinking we know what’s right and who’s wrong dismembers us. We can discern and make decisions and help where we think it will be helpful, but stay open to not knowing exactly what the truth is and what’s best.
I mean look what happened to Adam and Eve. They were in paradise before they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. I take that story as a metaphor and a teaching. We are in the Kingdom of Heaven, or Home, or connected to the source, before our judgments cause us to start worrying about things.
A Course in Miracles describes our separation from God as such:
Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishment and real effects.
Laughing, especially at our thoughts, re-members us.
The Tao Te Ching puts it this way, in chapters 16 and 20:
Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return. Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source. Returning to the source is serenity. If you don’t realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready. Stop thinking, and end your problems.
Simple. And hard.
I wrote us a prayer to Re-member. A statement of intention. To me prayer is opening up the line of communication between us and the Whole. Stating what we intend, asking for help. Angels are waiting to be mobilized, you know.
And words have power – don’t dis-member yourself with your words either. Everything you say about yourself and what you can or can’t do, what you are – that’s a prayer. It’s a spell – that’s why it’s called spelling. 😉
Anyway here is the prayer:
God, please help me to re-member myself today. Put back in place those pieces that have splintered off Or that I rejected. I am open to receiving And welcoming back The whole of me, The truth of my being, No matter how bright and glorious it may be. I will do my part by dropping the stories that no longer serve me, Suspending judgment And surrendering to You, Today.
May we each re-member ourselves today, and may that contribute to the healing of the Whole.
~Lisa