Heights of Experience

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.

~ Emily Dickinson

Whenever I'm walking and see a door ajar or a gate or garage door partly open, it feels like an invitation to investigate, to enter and look around. Admittedly, I feel that way with ladders and outside stairways as well. My inner voice switches to auto-note: "Hmmm. I wonder where that leads?"

Most often, I've stopped myself from actually following through on the investigation. Another voice advises caution ~~ I generally opt to listen to that one in this form of reality. My mind creates the adventure beyond the barely open entry or stairway. It encourages my creativity.

What Dickinson says goes another step beyond ~~ to making a choice to leave the soul ajar, inviting experiences of the Divine to enter.  Can I welcome that? Sometimes, I can; other times, not so much. The ecstatic experience, though rich, passionate and wonderful, leaves me vulnerable as well as out of control. I love the feeling and fear it in equal measure. I guess that means I need to experience more of them so the joy outweighs the fear!

Do you allow yourself to be open to experiencing the Divine? How do you experience It? How open are you to leaving your soul ajar? What does that mean to you?

Hope

Wisdom of the House of Night: Colette Baron-Reid

From the guidebook:
In the darkest forest, the moon can hide to make it hard for people to see their surroundings, and some are blind to the next step and find that they give in to fear that there will never again be safety or light. ... Have hope, and only good will come of it. Take one step towards your dream.

During darker times of my life, I've felt abandoned by friends, by family, by lovers, by nature, by God/Spirit/Goddess, even by my very self. No light shines, nothing visible by which to see a path, a way forward or a way out.

I made it through these dark times and found one of the most important things carrying me through, waiting for me to allow it to shine light for me was Hope. Hope dwells in that deepest part of me ~ so deep that I often forget its existence; I certainly forget its power.



Emily Dickinson said it most beautifully:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
Ans sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
....
I've heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Hope is always within our grasp ~ even closer than that ~ it 'perches in the soul' whether or not we acknowledge  or even notice it. In many versions of myths from around the world, it is hope that truly saves the day. Hope that allows brightness and light into the darkest corners so we recognize our own way out.

How has hope appeared to you? When you have allowed hope in, what has changed for you? How important is hope in your day-to-day life?