Less Striving

Loving child,

You are so wonderful,

You don’t need to strive or push.

Like the tree, the grass and the flowers, just

Be. And that is the teaching.

We don’t need more information. More things to do. Do better. To do more of.

What we need most is to know how to be.

To be ourselves. To fully embody our goodness and light.

To be in relationship in this way is the greatest gift we can give others.

And that sense of your true essence will stay and keep giving when you’re gone.

I found myself feeling sad, worried. I feel this love in my heart that longs to reach others like branches weaving and expanding. It seems it isn’t enough. There is so much pain and suffering and so very little I can do. What do we do with the feeling of wanting to do more? The simple message (above) that came forth during today’s meditation is true:

Rediscovering and embodying our true nature as an offering if how we reach others best.

Whatever your gift is. Whatever you sense is your spiritual purpose — cultivate that.

For the next few days, try less striving. Call in more reassurance and peace that you are doing enough. YOU are enough. In fact, you are probably quite wonderful.

Additional Resources:

• On Being: Never Forget What You Can Do By Parker Palmer

  • In the midst of a world where everything needs to be done right now, we can be famous for never forgetting what we can do — refusing to be overwhelmed but persistently making our small and yet vital contribution to the common good.

    Famous By Naomi Shihab Nye

    … I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

    or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,

    but because it never forgot what it could do.

    (Excerpted from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Read the full poem here.)