It’s a section of the Provo River, near a bike trail that I enjoyed Sunday. There is something deeply compelling to me in experiences of flow, whether watching, or when consciousness softens enough to life being lived, as flow.
I started some of this thinking in a previous post, On Being, Part One, in which I shared a poem that represents some of my desire to surrender to flow. To be with what lives on the outside of words, or seeing, or mind, or knowing.
Part two is simple, in a way. I can find it easier by referencing a few practices that are part of my life. First is that I like to write. This blog itself is a Monday through Thursday practice of writing. Most of the time I write in the morning after a bit of meditation and quiet breathing. Most of the time, I don’t know what I’m going to write in advance. In the best of my writing, I have the sensation that rather than me writing words, I am being written. Or the words are writing me. It’s not all of the time. But it’s often enough. Flow.
A second example for me is being in circle. I like being in the process method that is circle, people turned to one another with thoughtful listening and sharing, for the way it contributes to circle as a way of being. I’ve felt this with groups many times. It’s not that we are circling, but rather, that we are being circled. What is arising in awareness is coming from us that are giving our awareness and attentiveness to the process. It’s not all of the time. But it’s often enough. Again, flow.
There is something very liberating to me in the feeling of “life living through me / us.” This feeling is hard to find in words. It’s not abdication of identity. It does feel like expansion. It’s not abandonment of personal being. Rather, it feels like finding place in bigger belonging. It’s a significant part of many spiritual traditions to seek and welcome belonging. This orientation, of life living through me, points as much as anything I know to that extra sense of belonging.
Back to the river, and to forest that surrounds. It is my experience that very often when I’m in those places, there is enough vitality in the trees, in the wildness, in the river, in the open skies, that life itself feels more palpable. It’s as if I see my small part (humbling) that feels like a stronger connection to a much larger reality, life itself. Flow.
I consider it blessing to experience these moments of flow. In welcoming words to come through fingers. In welcoming collective insight and presence to come through the shape of circle. In welcoming life energy to inspire and evolve whatever might me next. Flow.
