If there's one thing we've learned while birthing the dream and constructing the reality of terrealuma it's that once you decide to do one thing properly, a million smaller tasks instantly burst into motion - each with its own trajectory and a proliferation of ways to go wrong through no fault or design of your own.
'The Tao begot one.
One begot two.
Two begot three.
And three begot the ten thousand things.'
Right now at the tip of the iceberg are a broken tractor, a lack of water, and the ten thousand mosquitoes.
It's like that for everyone. It's hard to hold all the timelines in mind. It's hard to ignore them as well. If you're aware of everything at once, how can you not be overwhelmed? How to know what your one next step should be?
How to complete everyday tasks and look to the future when human survival looks truly uncertain - on a timeline we can comprehend all too well? When powerful systems work to dehumanise, control and destroy others, and when bodies hurt and break and decay as a matter of course?
It's a challenge for the forward-looking perspective, of linear development.
We have to look ahead, as that's the way our eyes are facing.
We also have to move backwards, within.
The Tao te ching had a handle on this thousands of years ago.
The way to keep going is by not identifying with the ten thousand things. Not rushing towards them. Not thinking you are them. Just letting them be, and then they move by themselves.
Not thinking you're a task to be performed. Or a thing to be perfected. Or to be bought and sold. Or endlessly expanded. Or hidden. Not thinking you're in charge of the world, or solely responsible. Not thinking you are solely anything.
If you stop identifying with all the pains and resistances - they release into power. Then you panic again. Me! All these things! Help!
And then, hopefully sooner rather than later, you get back into the flow.
Living's easier, because there's no resistance and no argument. Somehow, through painful squeezes and through moments of joyfully being carried, the things get done.
An we intend for the things to get done.
If you're overwhelmed, or wondering what your one next step is, and this intention sounds good to you, we invite you to a workshop at terrealuma at the end of July. Come and find a way of not identifying with all the pressures - a way that releases your power to act.
I'll be leading meditation at the top of the slope, to soften the mind and move backwards inside, away from the drama. Focusing - to concentrate on the bodily sense of what you know but you haven't quite got to yet.
Freewriting - writing to write – doing to do, being to be. Then intuitive painting - learning to shut up and follow a creative process. Splashing paint everywhere.
The sessions will be held outside, (sheltered, but open) on secluded, wild land with forest and meadow and plans of its own. The spirit is distinct. Gentleness and freedom.
The food will come straight from the garden. There'll be spontaneous music making in the evening, around the fire. There will be a lot of stars. Like the land itself, you'll be left entirely free and also looked after.
Some very special, intuitive yoga and massages will be available, for grounding and for processing. Individual Reiki sessions work like this too, supporting, freeing, energising.
And in the garden and the kitchen we'll be busy, with the occasional loud burst of panic, as we juggle the ten thousand things.
Sarah Luczaj, PhD
therapist, writer, artist, reiki master, creative regenerator and co-founder of terrealuma.
offers online reiki healing/chanting sessions, here