Mercury heated up is a liquid . When we heat it up from its solid form, that’s how we’re able to shape and mold it. I recently read a comparison of mercury to being human. Which form do we take, solid or fluid (rigid or soft)? Can we (remember to) soften ourselves and, in turn, create fluidity (flow) and openness in our lives? Our superhero KyRose knows how to do this. She can stop long enough to live in the moment and let the feeling of loving kindness swell and consume her. She is open, available and truly alive.
The other day, I was helping my daughter get dressed for school, while she was lying in bed pointing to all (the clothes options I was holding up) that she didn’t want to wear. Frustrations mounted and she began yelling at me. Instead of reacting by yelling back, ignoring her, or storming out, I calmly reminded her that she was yelling at me. And when yelled at, I prefer not to help her. Then I gave her a chance, a moment while I stand there looking at her – to ask for help kindly. She couldn’t do it. She sat still, quiet and glazed over. I left. Ten minutes later, she still sat there on her bed (or probably lay there as I was now downstairs fixing breakfast). I did hear her, however. She was calling out – this time to her dad – for help. Finally, she made her way downstairs, dressed – but grumpy and blaming me for her “inability” to get up and move along. She was stuck.
As she sat eating what was now a rushed breakfast with teary eyes, I leaned down to her cheek-to-cheek, and I whispered, “I care about you because I love you. If you yell at someone, you can say I’m sorry, right away. You don’t have to wait until later when it becomes even harder. Just say sorry – right there and then – and move on.” Yet, I know the feeling all too well: yelling and shaking up the place and then stuck and unable to even fathom an “I’m sorry” coming from my mouth.
That’s because sorry doesn’t come from the mouth. It comes from the heart. KyRose, our superhero, knows this and practices it like second nature. She is our hope and she shows us how to build this skill. She shows us how to stop in that moment and feel our own pain. She is compassionate, but first with herself, meeting her life and her experience rather than holding on tightly to the story of her pain. Kyrose feels and meets her pain with loving kindness. She meets it until it dissipates; and she is left open, loving, welcoming and available. This is how our superhero stays fluid and in flow. Let go of the past. Let go of the ideas we hold: that things should have turned out this way or that. It is what it is.
All we really have is this moment. Be in it. Live from it. Open to it, and (all) opportunities become available. KyRose says, “Live like a soft sprouting branch, reaching and growing in every moment, expressing full aliveness. Feel and open.” Stay fluid.