Opening to life’s waves.

One of my dearest friends just navigated the deeply challenging waters of childbirth. We spoke on the phone as she was feeling into the contractions that were beginning to come in consistent waves and my whole being instantly remembered this intense ebb and flow. As each contraction arrived, she paused to be present with it. “Thank goodness there are breaks,” she breathed at the end of a cycle.

In childbirth, the mother is invited to relax into the waves of pain as the body opens and the baby makes its way through, charting its course into the world. It’s the same in life. Opening to life’s waves…being equally curious about the pain as we are the joy, of the struggle as we are the ease…gives us an opportunity to keep expanding into the truth of who we are. This is not always easy…there is a fair amount of courage and faith required…and yet as we continue to meet life’s challenges we find that we are capable of much more than we ever thought possible.

In this crazy adventure of human-ing, consciousness is everything. If we see the waves of light and dark, challenge and ease, pain and joy as a part of the journey of being and becoming, we can decide to stay open to it all. We can allow life to expand us, allowing new possibilities to manifest. We don’t always know where we are going, but we can trust the process of rebirth, the contractions and the breaks, and know that this is simply the way of life.