Neutrality & Willingness
As we let ourselves rise up the scale, past courage, we start bumping into neutrality and willingness.
While I was in the hard and muddy time of considering divorce, a friend told me an old Chinese proverb that helped me embrace this next stage of neutrality:
A farmer and his son had a beloved stallion who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild mares back to the farm as well. The neighbors shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the mares and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all the able-bodied boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, still recovering from his injury. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
That’s neutrality. That’s humility.
When you start rising up into willingness and optimism, it might sound something like this… Elizabeth Gilbert recently shared on an Instagram video:
“One of my spiritual practices is to be willing to be surprised by what happens. To expect to be surprised by what happens. It’s an interesting spiritual practice because it doesn’t involve me doing anything other than to be willing to not know what the day is going to bring. ...I think it’s a really important practice for spiritual and emotional health because it’s the opposite of cynicism. Cynicism says, ‘Oh, I know how this is going to go. I know what this is all about. I know what that guy’s all about. I know what’s happening next.’
I think that keeping the door cracked open to the possibility of surprise is a way of saying to the Universe, ‘Over to you, boss!’”
What happens if we keep letting ourselves rise?
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