Laying Down Stones
Spring of 2020, my partner Eric and I found a new Happy Place on Lake Ontario. We noticed, walking the shore day after day, that our eyes were constantly drawn down- unlike walking the sandy shores of the ocean where the ground is smooth and flat, the waters edge by the lake was covered with round, smooth stones making a bumpy and uncertain footing. These smooth lake Ontario stones are (we learned when we went to ask Youtube after one walk) some of the most diverse rocks in the world.
I have a lovely pipe of stones I picked up last summer, because they delighted me. I spent hours on end walking the shore, admiring, inspecting, choosing, discarding that unique diversity of rocks. I realized quickly there were just too many wonderful rocks, but I decided to give in to the impulse, Picking up anything that caught my eye, inspecting it, enjoying it, and making that choice- to set it down, or drop it in my pocket.
These special pocket rocks made it back to the deck to became part of a growing pile of treasures on a patio table. I found myself often inspecting, noticing, reevaluating, arranging, sorting. Then on the last day, putting my favorites (still too many) into a tub to take home with me.
Our spirits are like this, I think. We pick up all kinds of things in our daily lives. We pick up shiny sparkly things because they delight us, we bear the heavy weights of grief, of anger, or resentment. We can’t carry it all indefinitely, we need sometimes to pause and lay things down.
I thought perhaps these rocks could help us work on letting go, on laying things down together. When I empty my pockets after a day of collecting- there is a lightness that has its own value, it’s own gifts. Today we consider together -- What might be worth letting go to feel a bit lighter?
I invite now to gather a couple of objects, perhaps rocks, or marbles or whatever you have available to use for our ritual today. Sometimes it helps to get at the nebulous intangible things in life by having something solid, like a rock to focus our intention and attention.
Once you’ve got your objects, which we’ll just call stones for simplicity’s sake, I invite you to inspect them, notice them, and silently begin to consider, as you hold your stones, what is heavy for you right now? What feels like it is weighing you down?
Today we have shared stories and poems about betrayals about grudges, about worries perhaps those speak to you. Or perhaps it’s something different you want to let go of- Old beliefs, habits, stories, patterns, practices?
Or perhaps a goal, plan, or project you are ready to step away from?
Maybe a disappointment? I know I was disappointed not to be able to share my lake rocks with you all in person this morning, due to the blizzard that kept us all at home, so I am trying to let go of that.
This will be the practice. Choose an object, and as you hold it, look at it, imagine that it represents the thing that you are considering laying down. Maybe choose an object that reminds you a bit of the thing. Once you decide what it represents, ask yourself if you are ready to lay it down.
Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t.
You can hold it as long as you like.
Follow your own inner sense.
If you feel moved lay down something you can do that at any time.
I’ve noticed for my own inner journey, that deep things can take time to move, so Just take your own time.
Perhaps are there things you are not ready to lay down, that you would like to lay down someday, but the process is not yet complete? … Feel free to hang on to an object, maybe keep it in your pocket, or on a table you see daily, to represent those processes, to let them go in a week or a month or however many years it takes to be ready.
The Stones We Choose To Carry
I hope your metaphorical pockets feel a bit lighter now.
I invite you into a final time of reflection - In the words of Julian Soto from their poem "A Rock in Our Pocket":
“There is always the possibility that
we can treasure what is in our pockets,
rather than the thing we have yet to attain.”
As we enter this new year together, is there anything you already have that you would like to intentionally carry forward into the coming year- something that is part of you, or part of your life that you could choose to treasure, to carry with intention at this moment in your life?
I invite you to choose an object perhaps one that is easy to carry in your pocket, to represent this intention.
Each time you touch it in your pocket, or notice it in a place you will see it each day, let it remind you of this intention.
What we Carry, and Why?
This new year asks us, invites us to notice what we carry, and why.
To consider what we will lay down on the threshold of the new year,
To decide what we have carried long enough, and to lay it down
This new year invites us to pause and notice all the gifts of our lives, smooth or sparkly, to consider what we chose to carry into this next chapter of our lives.
Some choosing is easy and clear, but some decisions take time. Perhaps there is a question, a discernment, this new year that is worth holding and investigating until our hearts know whether they are ours to carry.
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