So I have Billy Ocean’s 1980’s tune circling around my head just thinking about this title and no doubt I will be singing it for the rest of the day, but the context is slightly misplaced as concept for this insight. You see, when the going gets tough, the tough actually hunker down and ride out the uncertainty… they don’t jump ship or get going.
Uncertainty has been a theme for me for a while now. External circumstances have been disrupted outside of my control, but my usual stress-head reactions to adversity didn’t kick in this time and instead were replaced with a familiar old friend and alter ego: the manager (crisis manager to be accurate).
I’ve been forced to reconnect with an aspect of self that knows how to think fast and find creative solutions to shifting parameters but there has also been an evolution in this archetypal energy, a bit like growing up. Whereas once the stress response of fight or flight would have fuelled the quick thinking, problem solving, superwoman, she has hung up her cape and rolled up her sleeves and just placed one foot in front of the other trusting the path to meet her and trusting the decisions she has to make.
One of The Wholly Grail mechanics states “you cannot keep the Grail.” It pays respect to the flip of the yin/yang in the dance of the universe and that life can change in an instant… some call it fate, without this dynamic, life stagnates and so to keep you moving forward, growing and expanding, life throws in the odd plot twist to keep it interesting… after all, no adventure story would be worth reading if we took out the adventure part!
My old paradigm had me rising to the challenge of controlling the crash landing in an adrenalin-fuelled frenzy that required lots of self-applause after the fact for how well I managed, the new evolved me has just let go of the outcome (Principle 2: I AM Detached) knowing that the outcome is inevitable and the timing is up to the Divine. (Though I have to admit, there are other areas of my life where I’m still seeking that clarity).
When you know there is only one outcome and your only job is to decide whether you want to get there the easy way or the hard way, (this choice does first require the need for acceptance though), letting go of the struggle is the simplest option and your Grail is returned immediately. It’s called surrender.
When the going gets tough, the tough surrender. Peace comes from that place. From that place, whatever plot twists, shocks and spills come your way, you have the power to keep going, to survive and to thrive… and when peace returns you to your Garden of Eden, there’s no need for a round of self-applause, just look up (symbolically) and say “Thank you.”
May you find peace in all your plot twists…
More later… x
