The first, which I'll just "put out there," is a concept that a friend introduced me to around 25 years ago: that life is like a ladder, and we are all going up, rung by rung. For the most part, the people who are meant to "help" us are the ones on the rung above ours, and the ones who we are meant to help are those on our same rung or the rung or two below us. As well-meaning as it may be, it is counterproductive for us to leave our step and go back ten or twenty rungs and try to be helpful, because we really are not the right person for that job, just as someone way above us isn't going to be very effective helping us. I'm not sure where this friend had read or heard this, but it has at times been a wonderful reminder. Arguably the people we are the most likely to influence in our lives are people somewhere near our same stage of spiritual evolution, and then the wave of assistance will work its way along the ladder.
These dark mid-winter days haven't been entirely serene. I found myself two days ago in sort of a pique of passion about all the things, people, places, situations, and mindsets I am "done" with. In my personal journal, I wrote in big, loose, capital letters, "I AM DONE WITH ___," "I AM DONE WITH ___," for several pages. Some of the things on the list weren't too surprising, but some were. In the end, most of these things just have no spark or resonance for me any more. I'm bored with them, done with them. I've outgrown them. I've learned the life lesson I needed to learn from them in this lifetime, and now it's time to move forward. There has been a bit of disorientation in this. I mean, you can be on such a deliberate spiritual path and yet still be surprised by the heavy boulders that are weighing down your coat pocket, and unsure about how to proceed once they are tossed aside. It's not a judgment of these things, overall. Just a sense of, thanks, but now I'm done. I've graduated.
I happened across this quote online this morning, by inspirational teacher Iyanla Vanzant: "Release and detach from every person, every circumstance, every condition, and every situation that no longer serves a divine purpose in your life. All things have a season, and all seasons must come to an end..." To shamelessly mix all these metaphors, I guess the message I keep getting is not to fear stepping onto that next rung, and to do it completely. If a season is over, if a series of lessons is over, it doesn't mean life is over. It simply means it is time to move up the ladder toward greater expansion and life. It is OK to move, even if others aren't moving as fast, even if no one understands, even if events in the world seem to be more important than you, or even if you aren't clear exactly what is on that next step. It is not only "OK" to move forward, it is exactly what we are here to do.
