Openings and Closings

by Richard Reeve on September 23, 2009

in AziMuth

99c Store Going Out of Business
Image by RodBegbie via Flickr

“Knowledge is the harvest of attention”  Charles Olson

“Things have ends and beginnings.”  Ezra Pound

A few weeks ago in a cafe one woman opened a conversation with another “I hear you are going out of business.” The other woman responded quite indignantly “I’m closing my business, I’m not going out of business. There’s a big difference.”  The tension of that moment was palpable.  After a pregnant pause the first woman continued, “Right, you’re closing your business.  So what’s next?”

I was intrigued.  What a masterful response, bringing an attitude of no big deal to meet a highly defended and sensitive issue.

Transitions are where we have little choice but to reside in our uncertainties.   Am I missing something, or is hyper-sensitivity directly proportionate to our lack of acceptance?

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  • Jeb
    It's a remarkable person who can make such transitions easily. The tendency to wallow in the depths of our present misery is strong. Extraordinary, really. Where did it come from? When did we decide that it served us better to inspect our misery so closely, justify it, even, than to lift our eyes to the horizon and imagine instead what must be coming?

    Yes...what's next. That's the question of the day.
  • That simple line 'be not afraid" is about the most difficult spiritual practice I've stumbled across...
  • jamenta
    It is a wonderful poem isn't it? By a rather extra-ordinary poet.
  • Rumi like..
  • jamenta
    The Well of Sorrow

    There is a well at the roadside of life,
    A deep, deep well, whose water is soft.
    And man passeth upon
    The dusty roadway singing.
    Youth in gay array, yea, and age
    Still in gay raiment masquerading!

    There is a well at the roadside of life;
    And men are thirsty, and they come
    With their empty hearts like rusted cups,
    Pleading for a quaff.

    And behold, beside the well is one
    Who smiles, and brings forth the water, pouring
    With gentle hand unto the proffered cups,
    And they drink and go forth weeping,
    And call the water bitter!

    Yet the one beside the well, smiles,
    And watches man as he proceeds,
    And whispers: "Drink. Drink, for in the drinking
    Art thou become deep";
    For no man's thirst may e'er be quenched
    To his heart's satisfaction, save that he sup -
    Of the waters of the well of Sorrow!

    Patience Worth

  • Thanks for spending the time to share this wonderful poem and the previous insights...you've taken a post that was wallowing in the shallows out into the depths...
  • jamenta
    Difficult to be open to change, especially when it may be negative. Pain is something the deeper parts of the psyche are unafraid to expose the ego to, for whatever greater purpose or destiny is in store.

    Who would walk willingly into the horror so many have been exposed to in life? The Auschwitz's, the Gulags of the Russians, the many human bodily horrors: Cancer, Blindness, Deafness, Death of those you love, death of a young daughter or son ... the horrors are many and varied and wound us deeply, perhaps for an entire lifetime.

    In change lurks those horrors that the ego is so vulnerable to. No wonder we fear it. We probably ought to. Courage is not being afraid. Courage is being afraid and yet remaining steadfast while walking through the darkness, hoping in the end, light also will follow.
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