Celebrating Our Limitations

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I didn't get a post up yesterday, the designated day for posting on this site. I spent the day with artists and visionaries at a beautiful celebration of art and artists in my little town. It was rich and wonderful. As I was helping a fantastic artist sell her work, I kept thinking...I should be doing _____fill in the blank. It took a few minutes, but I was finally able to let go and be present with her and other wonderful people surrounding me. I was able to simply be in the moment and know that I have limitations! I can not do everything anymore, if I ever could. Rather than have angst and discomfort around that I finally ended up at a place where I could celebrate it! I could be in the present moment, savoring that moment. The rest worked itself out.

The older I get the more I realize that I do have limitations. When I first noticed them, I resented them. I fought against them thinking, " but I used to be able to do (whatever) and much more quickly." Life gets muddied with that thinking, and prohibits me from living fully. I am making peace with my limitations and beginning to celebrate them as I slow down and find joy in the present moment and let go of the "shoulds." Life is too short, and too sweet, to get caught up in lamenting what I can't do...I need to celebrate life and what I can do. I will be focusing on this for a while, and I invite you to do the same.

"How brave you are for slowing down. For not finishing that to-do list.

How courageous you are for not crossing that finish line, because your body said “enough.”

How fearless you are for choosing the quiet of your soul over those voices driving you always towards more.

How bold, how rebellious - you, out there, honoring your own natural rhythm, going against the culture’s breakneck speed.

We tend to make heroes of those hungry with ambition, relentlessly doing, producing always more.

We applaud those who refuse to stop or rest. Who push themselves so hard in the name of achievement, that they sacrifice their body and soul and heart in the process. We celebrate those who are ill or aging but never show it, never slow down, never reveal a moment of vulnerability.

This drivenness can be heroic, at times. It can be necessary for our survival or the greater good.

But, I want to make heroes of those who slow down. I want to make heroes of those who listen to their bodies, who do not strive for more than what the soul truly needs.

I want to make heroes of those who do not force or push, but surrender to each moment as it opens.

I want to applaud those who may not be driven towards success as we know it, but instead are nurturing something deep and subtle and needed. I want to celebrate those brave enough to cease all doing, even for a second, and sit with the ache in their hearts. A task many find harder than summiting the highest peak.

I want to make heroes of those who honor their limitations. Who are unable to keep up with the busy-ness of our times, yet show up to each profound, necessary moment.

It is truly an act of courage and rebellion to do any such thing, in a world demanding you resist your own self, your own rhythm, your own soul.

And the paradox is, that often when we cease our incessant doing, even for a minute, and listen to that quiet voice within, we discover what it is we absolutely must do, and what instead can fall away.

We finally hear the call towards what serves our soul, and what then will serve the world. Nothing more, nothing less.

A hero is simply someone brave. So come, be softly brave. Be a new, quieter kind of hero. Few may applaud, it’s true, but your soul certainly will."

Leyla Aylin

Archaeology for a Woman's Soul