I am writing in bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see our long-haired tabby cat Aurora. She is lying half in and half out of our sliding door. Fortunately for her, the screen door needs to be replaced so she has this liberty. She feels safe but also wild. It is a beautiful spring day. The blue azure sky is clear and the birds are chirping loudly. Her head and top part of the body lie across the threshold as she happily dozes. But she awakens at the slightest sound. Her eyes open wide to see the source of the noise before they slowly close and become dark lines on her face. I guess that is what they call a cat nap.
I sometimes forget the importance of my need to be half in and feel that safety. I can get caught up in the wild chasing of experience. Thrilled by the aliveness and richness of life, but there is also the part of me that wants to be quiet, do nothing, and just be in the safety of the feeling of well-being.
Nothing is wrong with either of these parts of me. They are the balance that is constantly shifting and changing inside of me. Sometimes I lean on the side of wild. Sometimes I lean on the side of safe. The rhythm chooses me.
I’m currently feeling the desire to go inward and unwind. The call of novels, naps, and nature walks is loud. I can feel the stillness beckoning and reminding me to honor all of myself and not to let my intellect and excitement run away with me. It is time to nurture my soft underbelly that likes the slow pace and the feeling of what is unchanging.
There is nowhere to go unless I decide there is. There is nothing to get to unless I create something. There is no time to be wasted unless I make it up.
Slowing down is what I tend to resist. The fear of inertia still has some spark. But the deliciousness of pleasure is much stronger these days.
I write this for me to remember, to affirm, and to validate my knowing, and I write this for anyone else who needs the reminder too.
It is okay to be half in and half out. Half wild and half tame. Half courageous and half afraid.
The yin and the yang. The up and the down. The black and the white.
We can rest in the middle and let the fulcrum shift as it will.
Are you allowing room for all of you? Are you listening to the inner promptings and whispers of what calls you? Are you willing to follow what is present for you in this moment?
The calendar, the rules, the schedule, the demands, the list, can you put them aside so you feel what is right, here and now.
Each moment might give you a different answer, but listening to the knowing from within is your compass point. You are a powerful creator. Where are you creating from?
Are you creating from your mind and your worries or from the wisdom of your heart and your love?
Angus and I had the magnificent Beverley Wilson Hayes as our commencement speaker for our practitioner training program last weekend and she talked about our thoughts being pregnant.
What are your thoughts pregnant with? What are you creating? What are you giving life to?
Today my thoughts are pregnant with love and relaxation, peace and wellbeing.
Let me know what your thoughts are giving birth to in the comments.
If you would like to listen to the Rewilding Love Podcast, it comes out in serial format. Start with Episode 1 for context. Click here to listen. And, if you would like to dive deeper into the understanding I share along with additional support please check out the Rewilding Community.
Rohini Ross is co-founder of “The Rewilders.” Listen to her podcast, with her partner Angus Ross, Rewilding Love. They believe too many good relationships fall apart because couples give up thinking their relationship problems can’t be solved. In the first season of the Rewilding Love Podcast, Rohini and Angus help a couple on the brink of divorce due to conflict. Angus and Rohini also co-facilitate private couple's intensive retreat programs that rewild relationships back to their natural state of love. Rohini is also the author of the ebook Marriage, and she and Angus are co-founders of The 29-Day Rewilding Experience and The Rewilding Community. You can follow Rohini on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about her work and subscribe to her blog visit: TheRewilders.org.