My fourth and last postcard from the third third says, “THE TRIP WAS WONDERFUL. AND THE BEST PART WAS COMING BACK HOME.”
Every two weeks I meet with my friends Judy Cannon and Lila Morisee. Together we have determined that the primary purpose of the third third is to come back to the true presence of who wee are. To understand who we were created to be and to live into that understanding more and more with each passing day. To love who we were created to be and to stop trying to be someone else.
My favorite poet, May Sarton, says it like this: “Now I become myself. It’s taken time, many years and places; I have been dissolved and shaken, worn other people’s faces, run madly, as if time were there, terribly old, crying a warning . . . “
There is a teaching story attributed to G. H. Reavis, assistant superintendent of the Cincinati Public Schools, that goes like this: “Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a new world, so they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, *all* the animals took *all* the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming, but he only made passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was so slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his web feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class, where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He developed “Charlie horses” from overexertion and got a C in climbing and a D in running.”
The story goes on, but you get the point. The primary lesson from the third third is this: Find and live into your true essence. As much as you can, put the rest down – all the striving to be somebody someone or something else wants you to be. I believe you will find yourself acting less and less out of fear and more and more out of love.
So here again are those four postcards form the third third:
Check out your unlived life.Listen to your body.Discover the sacredness of the ordinary.Live into your true essence.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer says it like this in “The Call”: *Let the lover pull you to your feet and hold you close, dancing even when fear urges you to sit this one out. Remember, there is one word you are here to say with your whole being. When it finds you, give your life to it. Don’t be tight-lipped and stingy. Spend yourself completely on the saying. Be one word in this great love poem we are writing together.*
Previous: [The Third Postcard][1]
This is the fourth and final in a series of Postcards from the Third Third by Mary Anne Reed,Ph.D., LMFT. Dr. Reed is a therapist in private practice, an organizational consultant, a member of the adjunct faculty of Perkins School of Theology and Texas Woman's University, and co-founder of OUR SPACE in Dallas, Texas.
[1]: http://www.thethirdthird.com/articles/view/?a=20080311082848
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