Let a Feeling Crack You Open

Here’s the bad news:
You can’t get ‘over’ a feeling.
You can’t get ‘past’ it.
You can’t release it. 
You can’t let it go.
You can’t transform it or transmute it.
You can’t even heal it.

All these ideas come from the mind,
not the body, not the Heart.

They are all sudden forms of violence,
sneaky ways of saying ‘no’ to a feeling,
aiming for its disappearance,
its death.

We learn to let go of ‘letting go.’
We stop trying to release.
We end the exhausting effort to heal.

Instead, we are present.
We offer a feeling our simple presence.
Our non-resistant attention.
Our love.

Here’s the good news:
In this field of presence
the feeling is no longer a problem,
an enemy, an aberration, a stain, 
a block to freedom.

It is no longer ‘something wrong.’
It is no longer ‘negative.’
It is no longer a threat.
It is no longer an unwanted child.

You are now its guardian, its protector,
its loving parent, its Home.

And held lightly, in a still small space of allowing,
the feeling stays for a while, or moves on,
or returns,
or never returns, 
but either way,
you are healed from the need
to find healing elsewhere.

You do not heal feelings, you see,
they heal you, when you allow them
to guide you back
to your original Wholeness,
your loving nature,
your breath,
your place on this Earth.

Jeff Foster