Permeable

How do we allow people and places to change us?

When we close ourselves to change, when we create boundaries and structures that preserve the same-ness that we are familiar with, comfortable in, then this is not a question. People remain separate; places are for visiting, touring, snapshotting and captioning.

But when we open ourselves to the connections that are always waiting, when we undo the blocks within ourselves and allow boundaries to become fluid, permeable, then we become clear, translucent. Uncaught in our personal fears and desires, we can see and sense the richness of the world, the people in it. We can feel how other people and places draw up and out, renew and rejuvenate aspects of ourselves.

The interaction of energies is a mystery to play with: we don’t know how or why people come and go from our lives, how or why places speak to us, change our lives. What we can choose is how we live, what we choose to express, and how, and when. We can be heavy handed, leaving our mark on others, or we can be light, sensitive, feeling but not shifting the world around us.

We choose how real and responsive we are to others. It takes more skill to choose how we receive what flows from others towards us. What do we take on, carry, rework, and wear? How skillfully do we select what we want to enhance within ourselves? What do we consume, and why?

Deeper than the photographs and memories are the knowings and insights that come from being open to outside influences. Realizations happen quicker than thought, come in directly through the places we are most open: from love, or from hurt; from passion, and from intrigue. We change our ideas, and when we revisit the same places and people, we co-evolve together, in constant dialogue and open communion, sharing energy and shifting perceptions.

Stepping away for conscious solitude is physically easy, but subtly difficult. The thoughts and influences of others are always within us, and it takes space and time to reflect and refine our inner state to be unique. When we let go of the influences that do not enhance our best selves, then we feel refreshed, able to meet the world anew, to give and receive in a new language, from a place of centered awareness.