The Tightrope Dancers

The sun bursting through the clouds.

The sun bursting through the clouds.

Awoke with this image of so many of us, on a tightrope. We sense that our landing spot is just ahead, though our vision is limited at present. We glance over our shoulder at how far we have come and know that there is no turning back. If we look below, (always a tricky business as we are trying to maintain our balance, after all) we see all the things that we have jettisoned in order to have made it this far. So much that was near and dear to our hearts has been let go of. We feel the lightness and are glad. The wind picks up and begins to blow and it takes all of our focus to maintain our balance on our rope. We start to think of that warm coat, (think traditional employment), the hat that kept off the rain, (think owning a home), a warm meal eaten by a fire, (think family and possessions) and all that we knew to represent comfort and security. Yet, here we are, balanced on a tightrope across a chasm deep.

Our hearts tell us that a new world is just around the corner, we can feel its pulse. Our eyes have yet to see it, our bodies have yet to be warmed by it, our thoughts struggle to understand it. Our hearts dance and twirl with the feeling of it. Expansion ripples through each cell and threatens to throw us off balance with their movement.

We strain our eyes to see through the mist as we are so ready to stand on firm ground and feel rooted once again. The tightrope that lured us, has lost its appeal. Our feet ache from the strain and our bodies long to lie upon the earth. Being an adventurer has grown old, and the onlookers have long gone home.

I feel so many around me, taking the leap from the old ways into a new that they cannot name but can no longer resist. Many of my friends are like me, living in a room in someone’s house, staying with their adult children or camping out of their car. We move about as we are called by our soul, a modern day group of nomads wandering the highways and byways. We see the seeming safety of the old world, folks with mortgages and retirement accounts and settled “normal” routines. We wonder, have we made the fool’s choice? Yet, we go on.

There is a palpable feeling in the air and the earth that says we are at the threshold. The mist may lift in the next second, hold on! Hold on! We are about to land.

I see us like children, set free to run and play!

I see us like children, set free to run and play!

I bow to the courage and tenacity of all my fellow tightrope walkers. My heart sends out a ribbon of support as we take these last steps when it seems all the elements have conspired to press us ever more fiercely. We let it all go, let it flow over us and through us, feeling the flame of love engulf us. We are being welcomed home. There is a whole new galley of folks cheering at the finish line. Our brothers and sisters from the stars and our inner earth family, all come to whistle and hoot and clap their hands as we take our last steps on this tightrope. They are ready to wrap us in arms of love and show us around this new world we have longed to see. I see myself dropping to my knees to kiss the ground as I  sob with the relief that we have arrived.

Of course, tomorrow may find me in a well of depression, flat on my back and unable to move.  I am simply savoring this second day of feeling joy coursing through me. I am sharing this tightrope vision but am unattached, allowing the feelings to expand in me, no longer holding to visions or dates or anything outside of my heart. We are wiser beings now!