Oh The Webs We Weave…
If you have ever adorned trees and other things with the store bought spider webbing for Halloween, you know how tricky and difficult it can be to remove! Outside this morning I set forth to complete that very task…the arduous, annoying, and frustrating task. Some of the webbing was wet from the overnight dew and it was still sticky in many spots. It stretched, it came off in small stringy pieces, and it stuck to me and everything else. Very time consuming and generally not fun at all.
Little by little though, with patience and coaxing, the webbing came off. Feeling more accomplished, I looked up and as the sun hit my face, I inhaled its energy, a mindful wave of peace washed over me, and I realized that the healing in my life has been so much like the webbing and the trees. Just like all aspects of me over the years, the webbing slowly but surely released from the trees and it exposed the beautiful and natural trunk and branches once again. It wasn’t easy, and it took time but it did release…the light got through…I began to grow.
Did you know that if you leave things like the decorative webbing or even live vines around tree trunks it can strangle the tree slowly? English ivy for instance climbs up trees and walls by attaching with suction-cup-like roots called “hold fasts.” These little attachments are so strong that they often need to be removed from walls with sandblasting. As it grows, the vine becomes thick, sometimes reaching the width of an arm! Although the ivy itself does not kill a tree, the resulting actions can by creating competition for nutrients, water and sunlight making the tree weaker and more prone to disease. We sensitive humans can develop these “hold fasts” and they can cause great damage to us over time. To take care of ourselves and our big beautiful trees, we need to be very mindful of these seemingly harmless little attachments.
Oftentimes without even realizing it, we weave these intricate webs and allow those “growing vines” to thrive within and all around us. Sometimes there are many layers and off shoots forever growing. This webbing and these “vines” we create can be for our protection and to attract what we need to sustain ourselves but more often than not, they are spun from a lifetime of events and attachments that can become entangled and confusing. If we are not careful, we start to become weighed down and a strangling of our life force begins.
The task of removal and release may not be easy and it may take time, patience, and commitment to untangle and remove layers of old webbing and vines that took a lifetime to create BUT with copious amounts of loving kindness towards ourselves, the beautiful and authentic US will then be exposed to the light once again. We will grow…and we will feel joy.
3 Steps to stop strangling and begin untangling!
- Be mindfully aware that you may be clinging to what you need to let go: It can be hard to let go of the false belief that the only way to achieve happiness is to regain what has been lost. Even when you know you can’t reverse the situation, you may agonize over this reality. Clinging to what once was, avoiding the process of grief (all kinds of loss, not just death) and acceptance, can cause paralysis. Grasping for a future set of circumstances identical to the past holds you back from discovering beautiful roads that could lie ahead. The desire to backtrack or reconstruct will only result in your wandering around in circles, lost instead of opening new doors to find new paths!
- Stop creating your own suffering: As humans we often create our own suffering by holding onto attachments (clinging) and expectations (grasping) of ourselves and situations. We can create a huge shift in perspective when we allow ourselves to recognize that there’s no such thing as permanent happiness without a lot of work and that great healing can can be born of our losses and struggles if we choose to see it that way.
- Ask yourself what we you truly need in order to be happy: Do some visioning… take a deep beautiful inhale and exhale…see yourself giving up the habits of clinging and grasping, as well as the need to control external circumstances. How would it feel to flow instead of fight?If you can live in that vision…really let yourself feel it…even for just a few minutes, it should feel amazing and free. This is called transformation.
Still feel entangled and ensnared? Call me for an appointment to relax and release!