I love this analogy from yesterday's reading by Mark Nepo.
The Art of Facing Things What people have forgotten is what every salmon knows. —ROBERT CLARK
Salmon have much to teach us about the art of facing things. In swimming up waterfalls, these remarkable creatures seem to defygravity. It is an amazing thing to behold. A closer look reveals a wisdom for all beings who want to thrive.
What the salmon somehow know is how to turn their underside—from center to tail—into the powerful current coming at them, which hits them squarely, and the impact then launches them out and further up the waterfall; to which their reaction is, again, to turn their underside back into the powerful current that, of course, again hits them squarely; and this successive impact launches them further out and up the waterfall. Their leaning into what they face bounces them further and further along their unlikely journey.
From a distance, it seems magical, as if these mighty fish are flying, conquering their element. In actuality, they are deeply at one with their element, vibrantly and thoroughly engaged in a compelling dance of turning-toward-and-being-hit-squarely that moves them through water and air to the very source of their nature.
In terms useful to the life of the spirit, the salmon are constantly faithful in exposing their underside to the current coming at them. Mysteriously, it is the physics of this courage that enables them to move through life as they know it so directly. We can learn from this very active paradox; for we, too, must be as faithful to living in the open if we are to stay real in the face of our daily experience. In order not to be swept away by what the days bring, we, too, must find a way to lean into the forces that hit us so squarely.
The salmon offer us a way to face truth without shutting down. They show us how leaning into our experience, though we don't like the hit, moves us on. Time and again, though we'd rather turn away, it is the impact of being revealed, through our willingness to be vulnerable, that enables us to experience both mystery and grace. Mark Nepo
I totally get what he is writing about, especially when it comes to hearing the truth when it isn't pleasant or kind. When it crashes into what you have previously believed.
I somehow was taught to not climb the waterfall of truth, but to duck beneath it and just stay with the positive.
I am now much like the Salmon. I face it squarely with my full insides. I want to know the truth and oddly, instead of drowning me, I am actually becoming stronger and as I see it in my life, moving ahead.
Dodging the truth will not advance your life at all.
And facing it fully in the belly, feeling the sharp jolts of the truth, will actually let you rise above it....and not drown.
As human beings, we somehow believe that the truth will be the death of us....when the complete opposite is true.
Knowing who my father was and how he lived his life, actually allowed me to live mine.
Like a salmon, I have been climbing the sometimes endless waterfall of truth....advancing bit by bit...letting the truth slam me in the gut time and time again...it has given me courage and strength to advance in my life.
I can understand how this seems improbable, how it seems that you are swimming in the endless flow of negativity, but actually you are turning the negative into a positive advancing movement.
While most want to turn their bellys away from the negative, believing that it will keep them positive, it actually weakens them.
I didn't become strong by turning away from the truths....the truths actually showed me where I had been weak.