How to Bend
We went on a family hike yesterday in the foothills. As my son and I walked through the forest together, alongside the creek, I noticed him bending branches and I heard him say, "These are all still living." "How can you tell?" I asked. He said, "They bend."
Living things bend. They do not stay stiff. It got me to thinking, we can get into rigid patterns of thinking, can't we? We can limit ourselves through old stories and ways of being in the world. Keeping the body flexible in spiritual practice helps the mind to flow and enter new patterns of thought. When we bend, sway, dance and honor the organic, moving nature of our bodies, we remember that we are alive. Like the branch that is living, we won't snap when something bends us.
Sometimes I act like I am much smaller than I am. It's an old story. Rather than change the story, I move. Whether that is in a full bodied dance, or noticing the movement of my breath, I notice movement and flow. Life is forever moving; in body and soul. It is amazing how something that dies, like our bodies, reminds us that we are alive.
Jenny, Some of us old-timers are not as flexible as we used to be! With two rods and 16 screws stablizing 8 vertebrae in my back, I don't bend like I used to. But. . . I am fully alive! I try to stay flexible in other ways. I try not to hold any idea or position too firmly as I find that new evidence, new experience and my evolving faith experience requires me to change my stance on issues. Just as the twig on the end of a branch is flexible, the branch going back to the trunk is a "tad" more solid though it may still bend in the breeze. I guess for me, the idea of flexibility is being able to sway with the wind rather than snap off in a storm. Hooray for your son who can see life in flexibility! May it ever be so with the rest of us! Jim
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