Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” This is the truth about the rhythm of our souls, and Heartspace, and ultimately all things, everywhere, all the time. Let me explain about myself.
I have been so determined. Throughout my life, I have often spent energy and time trying to make things the way I wanted them to be. I did this in romantic relationships, friendships, jobs, and in my physical health. Don’t get me wrong- I have been lazy before. But for a lot of times in my life I was driven by my will to make the life I wanted to have. I lived by the dictum, “It’s your world- you can change it,” and I succeeded in changing the world sometimes, for myself and occasionally for others, too.
However, there are times when my willfulness gets in my way, when my ambition bites the nails of my success. I’m finding that as I grow older my life is less tolerant of me being in absolute control, driving wherever I want and doing what I think needs to be done. What I’m about to say isn’t for the faint-hearted: I have spent the last period of my life learning to let go of the steering wheel. These have been the times in my life where I have had to let go of my willfulness and let things work the way they work, every single day. Surrender, surrender.
I have not done this because of my powerlessness, but instead the ultimate power, the knowledge that everything’s gonna be alright. That is the ultimate power, and ultimately what Heartspace is all about: Knowing that the rhythm of my soul relies on millions upon millions of infinitely interdependent connections throughout seen and unseen worlds within and around me. This is obvious in my every moment, from the stirring of my consciousness in the early morning, throughout the daytime, deep into the evening, and through the deep night’s sleep.
All of my body, my soul, my mind, my heart, and my being is held tightly and in perfect wholeness at all times, whether I’m conscious of this perfection or not. And I do not have to be perfect either. All this simply is perfect all the time, synchronized by infinity and with harmony among everything. The most screwed up situations and the most beneficial thoughts are working in sync with the countless people ultimately supporting you in the myriad moments you live through every single day. It all just works, and there is nothing more to be done except to do it.
Being gracious towards myself, I see now that rather than trying to scatter plot the twenty year plan for my life, I just need to do the thing that is right in front of me. First step’s first, one day at a time, and all that. These are idioms for everyone, not just the desperate or recovering.
Talking with a loved friend today, I was taught a process for that self-graciousness, that way to get back to the rhythm of my soul. It begins with seeing myself as whole, complete, and in harmony with everything around me right now. There’s nothing else to be done, no goal to reach. As I sit here typing, all is working in my life right now. Things may appear confused, uncertain, unacceptable, or just plain old bad – and surely they are, if I see them that way. However, they are supposed to be that way until they are another way. If I must work to make them a different way, then so be it. But just because they aren’t that way right now doesn’t mean I am not whole, complete, and harmonious right now. So it begins there.
Having compassion towards myself is essential for getting back to the rhythm of my soul. Compassion, from the Latin word passus meaning suffering, and com meaning with, making compassion literally meaning suffering with. When considering personal engagement, compassion means feeling strongly for oneself. We live in a time when a lot of people believe that feeling for ourselves is automatically self-pitiful and bad or demeaning. Many people have developed a kind of apathy towards themselves and the rhythm of their souls. Having compassion for ourselves can bring us back to ourselves in a powerful, deep way.
Clearing away distractions within myself has benefited me beyond measure. For all the time that I lived so determinedly I was listening to the voices of a few people, mostly unknown, who drive a lot of social messages throughout society. While I listened to them I ignored me, to my own detriment. That wasn’t wrong, necessarily, but it wasn’t honest to me. When I clear away the distractions of those voices distracting me from myself, I discover that there is a kind gentle-heartedness at the core of me. I am proud of that, and today I can see it clearer.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
That clarity of vision and listening is me practicing self-compassion in action. It allows me to get past the demands I place on myself and towards the center of Heartspace within me. I get to see and acknowledge my own experience, ideas, actions, wisdom, and truth inside all this. From there I see what I’m engaged with inside of me, and figure out what I need to strengthen those engagements, including the tools, knowledge, action, and reflections. As I begin, I support that journey by consciously relying on Heartspace. I check in with myself through the journey, finding out how I feel, how I’m connected, and doing things to support myself as I learn to rely on Heartspace more. Everyday I get to surrender, surrender. Love, release, revel… and then surrender again.
Heartspace believes in you, every single moment of every single day of all your life, beginning to end. It believes in you so much, it has inevitably enmeshed your existence into the very nature of the universe, invariably tying you together with an infinite amount of possibilities in order to create the life you know as your own, which is actually key to universal reality as we know it right now. The amazing thing is, as soon as you cease to exist as you’re recognized right now, you continue to support all things in all times as your physical dusty self goes flittering out into the wind as they dump your ashes, or gets composted into worm food after you’re buried.
This happened before you came and will happened infinite times after you go: Nothing is new, nothing is old, and all things simply are. Heartspace supports all of this, infinitely, all the time. It is a principle that is irrefutable. The only thing we need to do is get ourselves out of the way and let Heartspace continue to do its job. It is what it is, and it works the way it works.
Adam F.C. Fletcher 