A Whole New World

Suddenly, we are discovering the Hochtaunuskreis, which is North and West from Frankfurt. The land there is beautiful, there are rail and bus connections to Frankfurt, the people there would have enough money to be clients of ours, we would still be able to keep our connections with friends and we would not be too far from mama and papa. Houses, jobs, friends, many things are coming together to show us the way. Slowly but surely. The hunt for the house and land continues at a slower but deeper pace. We look at houses and learn about what we want and don't want in terms of land, roofs, number of bedrooms, barns, workshops and stalls, and all the myriad things about owning a house here in Germany. Not to mention our financial needs and responsibilities and demands and opportunities. And we are praying and setting intention and learning the difficult lesson of following through. Being an adult, it would seem, means be responsible for ones ideas and visions, careful about what one brings into the world- be it children or plans and visions- and then maintaining care and support and giving the time and energy it all needs to keep running along.

It seems to me that being an adult is an ongoing learning that never finishes. While we were at the Zen center, we learned about being an adult emotionally and spiritually. We learned about maturation and we did mature. Now that we are "on the outside" as it were, we are learning about being an adult in the "real world". This business of leaving home to seek one's true self seems for now not so current as leaving home to seek one's fortune. How is it that we live in this very capitalist/consumerist world while keeping our souls alive, while keeping our ideals alive (albeit allowing them to be tempered by the fires of our real lives), nourishing our dreams, and staying in touch with source. This seems to be the greatest question, how to be fully sensuously embodied, spiritually fluent and deep, and psychically whole, while caring for the next generation. In short, how to be an adult. Which this process of looking for a house is giving us the opportunity to learn. the next opportunity, that is, for the next step of the way. Having to learn this lesson is sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, sometimes like coasting the bike downhill, and sometimes like riding a bike uphill through the Alps pulling my entire family behind on a trailer.

How do we stay present for our own truth while being present for the truth of others even if, and especially when, the truths seem apparently opposed or painfully contradictory. How to speak up in a way that does not shame, blame, or condescend to the other person's experience of truth, but also honors the experience of the person speaking. How to listen deeply to someone else's pain when in the midst of some chaos, exhausted, difficult, pushed experience of one's own? In short, how to be an adult.

What seems to be offered here again and again is a new beginning, or a series of new beginnings, that have to do with selling food, community, cooking, and learning. We have begun a relationship with a new farm and their "Hofladen" or farm grocery shop, in which i may cook and bake and work in the shop and nic would work in the shop. New stories, new community, new beginnings. Seeing how things unfold and become the way we are taking. Responding to the offerings that are made and seeing what can be offered in return. And then taking the lesson and digesting it and moving out again into the world. Perhaps finding a place to "put down roots" figuratively and metaphorically. looking for a place for our sheep, for our garden, and for our home. Praying, and then seeing how the universe, the great mother, responds.

May we grow into adulthood, responding to and caring for our lives both psychically, and emotionally as well as spiritually and physically. That we bring all of these parts together through the work of our hands, bodies, hearts, and minds into a whole. May our journey of healing and maturation be a source of support for others to do the same. May it be so.