Falling, failing, breaking, bruising, cracking, loosing.
Don’t we hate those words.
How much we try to avoid them.
Whether it’s a primary school classroom where getting things wrong feels like being naughty, or a would be business tycoon TV show where failure is a swear word, we constantly pick up the message that we must succeed, win, achieve, do better, have right answers in order to be of value.
And thus so many of us end up on a personal quest for success and approval, and the religious world doesn’t help matters by adding to the background noise and setting up ladders of perfection, as if it’s all about climbing.
Each mistake we make is seen as a slip or fall away from that perfect place at the top.
And then come the penances, the endless saying sorrys, the guilt trips – again reinforcing the subconscious voices they say ‘as you are, you are not enough.’
Yet there is another voice within us – a quieter, gentler, wiser voice. I stumbled across this when looking back over my diary, and I found it most prevalent during times of trauma, failure and brokenness. These are the times we see ourselves stripped of the various hats we wear, and if we look carefully and closely, we’ll uncover a diamond. It’s the ‘cracks,’ Leonard Cohen says, ‘that let the light in.’
There is within each of us an often hidden treasure, a priceless pearl, a golden nugget. But when we place all our focus on what we wish we were and try so hard to be, we miss the inner beauty.
Whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Pagan, Agnostic or Atheist, each one of us carries an intrinsic beauty. And the irony is that we are closer to discovering that beauty if we stop that climbing for a while and allow ourselves to collapse into it.
Mark Townsend is a combination of priest, magician and writer. He uses seemingly opposing forces as equal gifts in our search for the meaning of life. As well as being an ordained priest, Mark is a member of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids – a world-wide fellowship of those to try to follow a nature based way of life. He also utilises his priestly skills as an Alternative Celebrant, and offers various rites of passage to folk who do not limit themselves to Christian practises. He creates meaningful services and blessings that reflect the spiritual path of his wide variety of clients. www.magicofsoul.com
