Beyond Words

The sensuous song of letters lulls us to sleep.

I created this page as a meditative process...and as a reminder.  That letters, which in turn create words, are just symbols.  That all too often we get caught up in these symbols, thinking that they are reality.

Words are just words.  

One way to think of it is by looking at money.  Money obviously has value.  If I had a $100 bill (riiiiight), I would feel quite fortunate.  If I gave that bill to you (good karma), we would both understand the transaction.  And yet, all I really just gave you was a fancy piece of paper.  

If I gave that $100 bill to someone who was living on the street, that fancy piece of paper would mean a far different thing than if I gave the $100 bill to a millionaire.  

Likewise, If I gave that $100 bill to someone knowing it was my last $100, that fancy piece of paper would mean something truly different to me than if I had found the bill on the sidewalk and was handing it back to the person who just dropped it.  

The point is - the fancy paper has no value, no meaning outside of that which we place into it.

It is the same with a series of letters.  The words we use have no value, no meaning, outside of the reality we place into them.  And we must remember that even though we share them with our own understanding of what they mean, the recipient might find something completely different in that string of letters.  

Neither understanding is right.  Neither is wrong.  The trouble happens when we forget that.

We must use our words and our money to communicate and interact with one another.  A sensuous flow of words can be seductive indeed...and why not delight in them?  Such is our good fortune of being human and having vocabulary.  

But we cannot forget that our truth, our unity, divinity, oneness - whatever you want to call it - lies beyond that vocabulary.  We must form and receive our words (and our money!) from that place....acknowledging that truth, not the stories we create around the letters and paper.

So when I say "artist", it means her truth and hers and mine (no link - that's another post yet to be written.)

When I say "cleaning", it means her truth and hers and mine.

When I talk of yoga, or meditation, or art journaling, or parenting, or running, or use any string of letters that happen to tumble onto this screen....I am not sharing with you the truth.  Nor am I lying.

I am gesturing to you and opening up conversation in the only way I know how over this long distance.

I am acknowledging, honoring, and celebrating our beautiful stories...and encouraging us to simultaneously live deeply within them and freely beyond them.

My story for today?  Yoga on the mat and then tackling the clutter in my son's room.  I just hope that whatever is under his bed doesn't bite.

Namaste.