Breaking Promises
In the autumn, the season of metal - lungs and large intestine, it is time for us to let go of all that no longer serves us and breathe in the purity of the now. My journey is leading me towards living more and more by the seasons in alignment with the planet and the outside world. It is sometimes confusing, but most often very satisfying. It is teaching me more and more about me!
It’s uncanny how the universe reminds us subtly of exactly what we need at any given time. As I sat listening to David Whyte last week, pondering how each poem he shared was in such great alignment with the seasons, I was struck that alignment is happening for us all the time, but that it is our choice to sink in to it, our choice to be aware enough to notice and make adjustments.
David shared that even if a a promise is sincere, it can become like a prison ingrained in one’s identity, even though it no longer serves us. Then, he shared these words.
TO BREAK A PROMISE
THE SEA IN YOU:
Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love’
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
Make a place of prayer, no fuss,
just lean into the white brilliance
and say what you needed to say
all along, nothing too much, words
as simple and as yours and as heard
as the bird song above your head
or the river running gently beside you.
Let your words join
one to another
the way stone nestles on stone,
the way water just leaves
and goes to the sea,
the way your promise
breathes and belongs
with every other promise
the world has ever made.
Now, leave them to go on,
let your words
carry their own life
without you, let the promise
go with the river.
Have faith. Walk away.
As it so often goes, in life tuned in, the clients I’ve seen this week, the friends I’ve met and in my quiet reflections, promises of old were present in the now. Promises of old were holding back momentum of the soul journey. Promises were creating limitations, barriers, expectations and distractions from the NOW.
Here’s a list of thoughts to process the promises of the old.
What is the promise you made long ago that you keep despite yourself?
How did that promise serve you?
Is that promise serving you, right now?
Is that promise supporting your future self?
Are you ready to honor that promise by letting it go back to its roots?
Send back that promise to the time it was created, the time it served, allowing all the fragments to flow to that time space reality with honor, respect and love.