When a Truth comes to me so clearly and fully as this one - what is here belongs here - I have the practice of writing it in dry-erase marker on my bathroom mirror. I think it’s my attempt to make it more solid, to introduce it to the three-dimensional world. I want to see it looking back at me boldly. The mirror I write on is in my guest bathroom, so I know others might see it. Depending on who’s coming to visit, this can create some mild anxiety around sharing a certain depth of vulnerability. I usually make space for this anxiety, shrug my shoulders and move on. By the time the guests arrive, I usually have forgotten that I’ve written the message.
But the thought of others reading this particular message, What is Here Belongs Here, stayed with me. I wondered that if my guests read it they might think I was talking about the actual objects in the room, a warning of sorts to keep their hands off my soap and tissues! An anti-theft variation on “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat. “
Only very seldom do folks remark on what I’ve written. I wonder if some may not be able to see it. That they are literally blind to the message? My friend Jean once told me that she didn’t look at the messages because she thought it would be an invasion of my privacy. This made me glow with the remembered awareness that we have no idea what others’ inner lives are like. It also made me snort with laughter! Me, who looks and touches and comments on everything in my path!
This Truth, though, is not about the objects in my bathroom. It’s about our world, both inner and outer. No matter how devastatingly beautiful or heart-openingly ugly it appears, if it is here, it belongs here. And our salvation lies in making space for it all and resisting nothing. That means making space for the sorrows and the joys. That crescent moon hanging in a midday sky of a blue you can’t believe exists? That belongs here. That shame? Of a past act committed by someone you wish was not you? That belongs here. That activity in our nation’s capitol? That makes you gasp with horror and fear? That belongs here. That pain in your shoulder, that reminds you that mortality really is a thing? That belongs here. That kindness you witnessed yourself offering to another? That makes you blush with pride? That belongs here. All of it is asking for space to be acknowledged and seen.
What if there was nothing to get past? Nothing to change? And the only activity needed is to allow and give space for what is here? In my world, this space-giving takes precedence over every other thing. It clears my blindness, softens my inner workings and helps me see the world as a place of creativity and possibility. It leaves me free to act, when acting is necessary, from a place of peace and to make choices based on what I love rather than on what I fear.
Try it. Maybe. See what you think. This Truth is for all of us. (Unlike my bathroom toiletries - those are mine!)