Allowing What’s Coming
Walking the deer trail in this tight valley I'm protected from the wind that ravages the ridge. I can hear it roaring up there, see the clouds running and the trees swaying. But down here in the moss clad glen it's all but still. The sun easily penetrating all the way to the forest floor, the branches still bare of leaves.
My tendency is to want to be up on the ridge with the cold wind tearing at my hair, but today I'm delighting in my decision to take the sheltered path. I'm charmed by he softness of the valley folded into the protective wing of this ancient mountain.
The contrast of the two locations, just yards apart, reminds me of the old Scottish story of The Cailleach and Bride. The Cailleach (Kal-ee-ach) is the Old Woman of Winter who brings the cold and watches over the land for half the year. Bride is the personification of summer.
At this time of year it is said that Bride starts to show up as warm air, flowers and green grass but the Cailleach, not ready to let go of her reign, beats it all back with repeated frosts, storms and maybe more snow. Bride persistently sends up more and more green shoots. Eventually, of course, Bride wins and summer rules the land - for a while.
In one of my favorite versions of this story, told by Daniel Allison, the Cailleach begins to dream of herself as Bride before waking up one morning to find she has turned into the Maiden of Summer.
Sitting on a slightly damp, mossy rock overlooking a fuller than usual creek I welcome the sun's rays on my skin while the chilly wind tears about above me. I wonder about that part of me that wants to hold on to the way things are, the Old One of Winter, set in her ways, clinging to the status quo, who resists the emerging new shoots of my evolving self. The one who fights back any sign of change. Of what, is she afraid?
Looking back over my life I see how effective she has been. She can rage and moan loud enough to keep the new parts of me, tentatively trying to be born, from showing themselves for quite some time. Often some disaster has to befall my life before the new parts are given the space and nourishment they need to grow. How could I allow that process to unfold with more grace?
How can I allow the dream of who I am becoming to gently guide me?
Knowing turbulence is inherent in all birthing processes, is there a way I can surrender to it, let it take me over, with less resistance?
The sunlight dancing on the water cascading over the rocks and the green ones pushing up out of the damp soil whisper: Trust.
Know that what is pushing to be born within me will be of benefit to us all. Recognize that this is how evolution works from within. The energetic system of Spring, newness, re-birth, moves within all of us. It seems our job is to notice it coming, then get out of the way so it can flower into existence.
How can you get out of your own way to allow yourself to evolve?
Listen to Daniel Allison's telling of The Cailleach here