progression

happy new year to all--may you feel fresh in your path. I took some pretty drastic steps in 2011, it was definitely a banner year. lots of accomplishments wrapping up and decisive moves. yet, as Osho wrote, new peaks appear instantly, new heights begging for attainment, and I find myself resisting the inertia of basking in the afterglow of these milestones and walking swiftly on. I reminded myself, staring at the beautiful full moon last night, that is was vastly important to slow down and proverbially smell the roses (I sniffed my big rosemary instead-a much headier smell) because I always have the tendency to rush on at warp speed. It's almost a disease-processing things at such a fast pace that I lose the feeling, the accompanying sensations. And so much is always happening that it can be like that wack a mole game (do they still make that game?) where you are relentlessly pounding the moles as they surface, one after the other, bam bam bam. Sometimes, you have to put down the mallet and take a stroll.
And nowhere is this more apparent than in love. Or perhaps I should say relationships- the application of the emotion. We fly through the breathless beginning, propelled along by pheremones and expectations, setting higher stakes and taking bigger plunges (if things go well). Somewhere along the way we may begin to take it all for granted and lapse in our archealogical exploration of the other person. Indeed, the relationship becomes its own entity and you begin to focus more on that than your partner. You look to it for nourishment instead of your soul. You lose the thread of connection. I think it happens more often than not. It's beyond important to examine the soul of your interaction and check in with the other person on that level. I feel like my love and I came back from a precipice-after looking over the edge and contemplating another route! all of that being said nothing feels quite as lovely and thrilling as a love renewed, rekindled. I feel like the winner of a very special lottery. I thought I knew love before--but it's not falling in love that is the most amazing feeling, its staying in love, finding new inroads to the deeper places, getting to know someone ever more profoundly. It makes life very beautiful. And I don't think I could be any more grateful or any less afraid. Which is the absolute best way to begin a new year.

Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old. -Emerson