The following is an excerpt from a paper I am writing for
Wisdom University. The numbers indicate areas that are cited in my paper. Enjoy...
Anne Lamott, author and spiritual teacher, says, “If you have a body, you are entitled to the full range of feelings. It comes with the package.”2 Many of us did not learn this. We have left parts of ourselves behind. We learned that to cry is weak, or to be angry is shameful, or to rest is lazy. We learned that our bodies are just not good enough. We live in the land of perfection, where we set standards for ourselves that cannot be reached. Many of us long to know our wholeness, our truest essence. Marion Woodman, Jungian author and founder of the Body-Soul program, archetypally helps us with this concept of perfection in her description of the Medusa and Sophia. In her book,
Addiction to Perfection, Woodman says, “Whereas Medusa wants everything permanent and perfect, engraved in stone, Sophia wants things moving, breathing, creating.”3 When we follow the teachings of Medusa, certain parts of ourselves, that we learned are unacceptable, are put in the closet to gather dust. Even though they are out of sight, they run our lives. Rather than seeing life from our wholeness, we look out of the parts of ourselves that have been affirmed and felt safe. And slowly, over time, we forget the other valid, beautiful and necessary parts of ourselves. Consequently, the parts of ourselves that we have been operating out of, become overused, tired out and stiff. The very aspects of ourselves that helped us to survive, now have the tendency to lose their luster through simple fatigue. The late Irish poet, John O’Donohue, conveys this idea so beautifully in his book
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom. He writes, “There is a beautiful complexity of growth within the human soul. In order to glimpse this, it is helpful to visualize the mind as a tower of windows. Sadly, many people remained trapped at one window, looking out everyday to the same scene, in the same way. Real growth is experienced when you draw back from that window, turn, and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows that await your gaze. Through these different windows, you can see new vistas of possiblity, presence and creativity.”4
With this awareness, many of us now question what we have learned and we are beginning to open to a new way of being in the world; a way that allows all of ourselves to participate in life. But, how do we begin to live life out of this wholeness? How do we reclaim Sophia, the wisdom of moving, breathing and creating in our lives? How do we reclaim the parts of ourselves that have been left in the darkness? Where do we go to remember our essence? We go straight to “the holy and hidden heart of it”, as Frederick Buechner says.5 We go, with deep respect and curiosity, to our bodies.
