Let Go of Myth,Step Closer to Reality
“To believe is to know you believe and to know you believe is to not believe” — Sartre
Myths are believes wrapped in stories - they keep us floating 10 feet above the ground out of touch with each other.
This quote challenges me to question my assumptions. When lifted like dead bark, I notice that these dead assumptions are simply beliefs of how things should go. Then in peeling them back I notice that their purpose is to keep life’s feathered fingers from brushing me too close, like an old scab they keep my tender skin out of sight from others and, heartbreakingly out of sight from me.
I notice, this scab is built from a childish belief that I will be safe : “As long as we are both telling each other the same story — the truth of the story is less relevant” I tell this to myself, darkly and in doing so a tiny part of me withers like an autumnal leaf, and I feel slightly… less. Cold, drunk on a dying lie —but at least it is shared. In noticing this, I no longer believe it.
Then what? What does it mean to no longer believe that I can assure my safety simply by agreeing with Myth. I want to know more, I want to more about this Myth and most importantly I want to breath life back into this dying part of me, and listen to what She has for me and for life.
According to the oxford dictionary: a Myth is a widely held but false belief or idea
The Darkest Myth Of Today:
Humanity — which includes you and me. With our beauty, love and care, with our touch wisdom and swords — will continue to live long after the planet is destroyed.
And it continues:
That somehow I will still be able to sit back and sip my coffee from a plush seat and look across the table at you and exchange a word or two about the World Cup. Together we could glance out the window and cast our eyes over an Earth that no longer holds life, that ran out of puff long ago, after a giddying sugar rush high. Then absently lift our feet from the ground and continue onto another topic … holiday plans.
It is a Myth, because it is not true. I will not live without the vital life force of this planet, with out the vital life force of you. There is clarity in noticing this.
Lifting the Veil
Like a shaft of heat, watery on the hot tarmac, I have walked in a mirage and in doing so severed myself from life. I have severed myself from you, severed myself from me. I have thrown up a movie screen between me and the planet, me and life, me and you. I feel a great tearing at my heart that I am so fragmented from what really is, right here, right now.
The deeper this sinks in, the more it hurts, Who am I when I am not behind the veil?
Closer To What Is
Right now I feel the pen slippery with sweat as I write this, I feel my nostrils tense and heat rise to my cheeks, bringing water to my eyes. Sensation by sensation I come to life and it hurts. There is also ecstasy in encountering the present. As I collect more of myself here, a wave of sadness rises and breaks over me at the enormous effort it takes to bring myself to life, on this planet. Right now.
There is some part of me that misread the headlines, and is now sat head in hands, back against the wall, mouth tight shut, barely breathing, “please just make it all go away — I DID NOT sign up for this”.
And it is here, with this part, that the work begins. That I pull back the veil and learn how to speak with her, the she that has said “no” to life. It is here that I learn to listen deeply, to create space for her, without a crumb of Myth.
Re-Learning Her
Just her, the She who moves with the moon and knows the secrets of the forests, who walks barefoot, electric with life into the night and does not get lost. This is the work, to create enough space for her to come forth, toes dug in earth, lungs filled with fresh air, bones on fire ... to sensitise myself to her whispers, let them become roars and bravely live from there.
Beyond beliefs, assumptions and myths of separation there is space for something completely different to gasp to life. Only her rawness can lead the way there.
The movie is over, the facts are in, the planet is going down faster than a drowning kitten and me, caught like a stunned flea in its fur, is going down with it…
Or, as the Once-ler said, as he handed out the last seed, “UNLESS…”
letting go of myths, means leaning close to the here and now - it is precious essential work.
-Originally published here.
