Sunday Scribblings-Power

"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is what we have not sufficiently desired." Nikos Kazantzakis

It's not a secret any longer~the buzz is everywhere. The power of intention, the power of positive affirmation, the "if you can dream it you can do it" philosophy. Believe long and hard enough, visualize yourself where you want to be, and the universe will move in ways to fulfill those dreams.

Undoubtedly, that is one powerful idea.

And yet...

"I know what the great cure is: it is to give up, to relinquish, to surrender, so that our little hearts may beat in unison with the great heart of the world." Henry Miller

While channel surfing on my XM radio the other day, I stumbled across an interview with Denise Jackson, wife of country music singer Alan Jackson, who has written a book about the recent breakdown of their marriage. The couple is back together now, and Ms. Jackson spoke about her desperate attempts to restore their relationship. "It was only when I finally surrendered it all to God that things started to happen, that Alan's heart began to soften toward me, that I learned to give up trying to control him and our marriage."

Two diametrically opposed ideas about power over your life. One suggests we have an almost magical ability to believe things into being, to focus a piercing beam of positive energy toward our goals, igniting sparks of creation deep within ourselves and the universe. And the other advises we give over our desires, our need for control and order, offer it in our cupped and outstretched hands to the Higher Power who can only then initiate Her work in our lives

So what is the answer?

In my yoga class, the leader tells us our practice is a balance of effort and surrender. Effort to achieve a pose, to bend and stretch stiff, awkward limbs and muscles into positions that may feel unnatural, even painful, and surrender when you've pushed your body far enough and you simply breath deeply and let go, accepting the shape you're in.

I imagine that everyone reading this is struggling with something -desires, fears, confusions, heartbreaks. We're all yearning, wondering, hoping to fulfill those dreams we harbor so deep within our hearts we're almost afraid to speak them aloud. We all want the power to make those dreams come true, to find answers to questions that trouble our sleep, to soothe grief and pain.

But I also imagine that true "power" lies somewhere between these two dichotomies, somewhere in that amorphous realm midway between effort and surrender, when you've done every practical thing you can do, when you've focused every bit of positive energy you can on that one tight place in your life that simply refuses to bend another inch, and you finally exhale and float, in the clear and certain knowledge that you've done your best and now grace must slip in.

The balance of power - saying Yes! and learning when to let go.

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