“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.”
—Jiddu Krishnamurti
There is a thought out there that things cared for must be cherished, and in cherishing them we must protect them. However, protecting our engagements throughout life is simply not an option.
Engaging with our children, our family, our friends, and our loved ones is special and important. We are not able to protect them though. Engaging within ourselves by taking time alone, listening to our inner voice while we create and ingest and grow and absorb, this cannot be protected. All of these sustained connections are made for stormy weather, times when it’s inconvenient or challenging to make time for them. They are built to last through changes of heart, errant behavior, and transformations of the mind.
If our engagements are not able to weather those movements, that does not mean they are not from our Heartspace. That does not mean they are not more or less real. It simply means that life changes. Change is change, and we cannot and should not protect our engagements from it.
This is a particularly important lesson to teach children, and to remind adults that they learned it in childhood. It reinforces the importance of resilience, which is the ability to bounce back from adversity. Resolving not to protect our engagements particularly allows us to embrace the learning possibilities in challenging situations as we let situations wash over us, and truth reveal itself. Shakespeare alluded to this when he wrote in As You Like It, “Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
Life is a constant progression of opportunity, disguised as challenge or suffering. We are meant to live enlivened lives that are filled with the progressions and regressions of our souls and minds, all the while relying on the constancy of Heartspace. That constancy has all the hallmarks of the best relationships and experiences we have ever had, including transformation and change, struggle and growth. At the core of our Heartspace is the simple reality that we are who we are, it is what it is, and it works the way it works. Our human beingness grants us the widest possible leeway we need to experience our lives however we want or need to.
Because, as Krishnamurti wrote, “…for all that is life.”
Adam F.C. Fletcher 