Lost in Space

Live Holistically is a multi-author site.
This post was written by: Susan Blue

Here is an astronaut floating in space. The context of purpose is for the astronaut to go way out there and to do something. I bet he’s up there to fix a space shuttle. Space Exploration! Sending shiny metal tubes out there, to the moon and beyond. Dress astronaut in shiny space resistant fabrics that will hold oxygen and not let space in. Now that they are dressed for the occasion, let them go outside and float.

Originally posted by Jean, the Cheerful Monk, when she wrote, At Home in the Universe. Jean asks, “have you ever felt you looked at things differently from other people…that a part of you was alone in the universe? If so, what was your reaction? Were you frightened… depressed… exhilarated… lonely? What did you do?”

Michelle Vandepas asked me what was my response?

The idea of floating above the world or out in the planets and stars has always caught my imagination. Would I like to float in space? Would I see if I could do something that may not work or work out? You bet I would! And you bet I do!

But on the practical side, I am an older woman who has lived many years with a physical disability. So it is not happening in this life time.

This life I danced and explored movement through the confines of our planet’s gravity system and my own abilities and disabilities. Another way to explore space. I had been a sprinter, a broad jumper and took acrobatic/ tumbling lessons before the back surgeries. I loved using my momentum or stillness in balance to have brief moments of shape and space happening together.

The great dancers and athletes have external and internal awareness. You can see it in the gaze of the eyes, focused but with a depth of being inside themselves. Their bodies become the lyrical extension of personal consciousness meeting the aliveness of the world.

Being a student of meditation and quantum physics, space is what we are filled with and is what is all around us. As my spiritual teacher says, “We are hollow and empty.”

We think and are taught our greatest fear comes when we face the unknown. We bind our senses to the matrix of our daily life, community and our place in geography.

When we are born, the extreme change of environment from inside our mother’s womb to the outside, shocks our system to breathe, to open the eyes, to live in the body. Our mother is the beginning matrix or ground for us. Her very being anchors us in the world. We get our nourishment, care, entertainment , and through that bonding we are secure in what we do not know.

Modern times have changed the process of birth and there are more outside demands upon the mother. Her attention is taken away from baby, leaving baby facing the unknown with a distant or absent matrix. I believe the consciousness of “is-ness” takes us through those fragmented beginnings.

There are no words, thoughts or feelings that tell our senses how to be or what to do. The inherent intelligence and health of our bodies and the spark of what ever it is that puts life into that body are the personal matrix that gets us through. To quote Carl Jung:
“Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life”.
Obviously, I believe we are.

Western culture bases value on our ability to manipulate the world around us. I watch in wonder, interest, sometime disbelief and horror with the happenings around me and in the world.
“Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interests upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance”….
Obviously, there are many who don’t know they have a choice. And there are many who are so invested in their agenda that the consequences others face, makes the history of mankind.

Eastern culture bases value on being in the world. The Eastern traditions of Yoga and Meditation take us beyond the layers of being into that essential self. A deep inquiry into your being will take you into the intimate journey of self knowledge. Whether you get there through adventure, trials and tribulations, or just being still, the Hero’s Journey is the same. How exciting it is to live at a time of West Meets East.
“In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted.”