Sometimes...

No rain. Still clear skies and the temperature is 50 degrees fahrenheit. Today is Friday.

However we try to make things simple, we cannot seem to do it. Our minds take us to places that are an abandonment from where we actually may be. This is sometimes a good thing. I met a woman whose early life was quite full of violations of every kind - her body in particular, at the hands of men who would rape and assault her. The best way to survive, was to escape the reality by disengaging the mind from the body. The disengagement was a way to escape the here and now.

As it turns out, there are lots of situations in which a person has to separate their actual reality to survive - and some do so in a very healthy way by ensuring that the strength that rests in the mind will serve as a way to protect the rest of their being. Those caught in war, in poverty, and shifting life situations need to do the same. And the fortunate ones are able to turn this into being of service - something that can be of use to others in pain. Like the woman who had to face the violations - she became a seer. Her ability to read people and their energies allowed her to make a living at helping others who needed clarity and support beyond what a therapist could offer.

We often hear about the mind in the context of an admonition to clear, to focus, to stop ourselves from putting our own meaning to things rather than just allowing the experience of being with what is. Maybe there are times when it is necessary not to be with what is.

This might be okay for people who don't face trauma and violence. But, for some, it seems that an escape via where the mind can take us - might be a good thing. To detatch during times of trouble and to remove oneself from the physical reality and move into a place where the harm can be seen from a different place, might be a very important life line.

As with all things, it is dangerous to think and speak in generalities - and the generality of one having to see the mind and its workings as being troublesome might be a generality to revisit. It may actually be a good thing to let the mind do its thing and create a different, if only an imagined, reality for a moment in time. Indeed, when we think about the use of psychedelics, there is a search for a different reality - but from a different starting point. Expanding the mind, as they say.

Just wondering on this day, about the whole idea of "emptying the mind" in relation to "expanding the mind." It's just another entry point on a morning when things are still dark and silent, the reality of the day has just begun to open, and the recognition that the uncertainty of what may come is alive at the moment.