Sunday Story...My House

Sunday Story…My House

is a very nice house. I have been building it for years. I know where everything is because I put it there. I built the places to put things in and the rooms for them to go into. It is my house.

I also populated it with people. The people living in my house are there because I let them be there. I asked them in, or I at least allowed them to stay for a while. Some of them are not very good house guests; others are great to have around. And still others are in hiding. They are hiding in places I have forgotten or don’t want to go into any longer.

I built this house. I created it to look the way I wanted it to look. I did it. Now way too often I was just building something without knowing what it was that I was building. It may have started out one way but then I changed my mind in mid-build and turned the garage into a bathroom or vice versa. When I look around my house it feels pretty good…after all I have been living here for my entire life.

You might look at my house and see some sort of M.C. Escher-esque creation but it doesn’t look that way to me. See it functions for me no matter what you think of it. Maybe it doesn’t quite work that way I would really like but I built and it is good enough.

You might ask, however, “what about all those rooms that you built and sealed off? What about the people living in those rooms …the ones you have forgotten about?” You might also wonder about the stairs that go nowhere, the garage that is too small for a car or the bathroom big enough for a tank. It just doesn’t appear to have much rhyme or reason.

So…the people living in all the rooms of my house are all me. After all it is my house and I am the only one living in it. There are parts of me that I tucked away for various reasons. Maybe when I was little I needed to hide and be kept safe. So I crawled into the closet under that stairs that don’t go anywhere and stayed there. The rest of me grew up and that little guy stayed in that closet, forgotten for all this time. This is especially easy to do when I don’t have to walk up those stairs and wonder what is in that closet.

That little guy in that closet got left behind. He is still there, he is still safe. But he can’t come out until I go and get him. I have to re-discover that part of the house…the part I built and then left for a variety of reasons. Then I have to coax him out of hiding. And it isn’t going to be easy. It isn’t just open the door and out he jumps. He has been in there a very long time. He doesn’t trust me or anyone else. So I am going to have to convince him it is time to come out and it is safe to come out, that I am going to take care of him now because I can and it is my adult job to do it.

This is not an easy process. It requires a huge amount of work on your interior landscape. A huge shift in the way you are building your house for the future. It is also going to require some remodeling of what you have already built. After all, how many closets did you build and then forget? How many pieces of yourself have you left behind in those little rooms?

When we speak of integration this is what we are talking about…the process of bringing the pieces of you home to live in the main house with the rest of the family. This is a life of integrity…to live in a way that is whole and in alignment with who you are today and with the vision of who you are going to be tomorrow.

What does your house look like? I am sure it is a very nice house but how many blind hallways are there? How many staircases that lead nowhere? How many rooms are there that no longer serve any purpose. How many people have you left behind to keep them safe and secure? Do you have any idea at all? Have you ever tried to step out of your house and looked back at it to see what the casual viewer from the street might see?

I know it is easy not to do this. I know that even thinking of this stuff might make your brain hurt. I know you think you have done your “work”. I know you think you are OK, that you have “worked through all your stuff”. But are you really? Or did you just close off that wing of your house. Why go down those hallways that lead nowhere anyway?

Why, indeed. It is very simple really…your life is incomplete. It is missing vital pieces that will enrich and create an integrated person driven with purpose and vision. This is the work that will inspire you and your people to become the powerful and amazing humans you were created to be.

Or you can just leave it alone and hope those doors never get opened. That those people hiding in those closets never get stirred up and decide to start making trouble in those funny little rooms. That is when life gets way past a little funky. That is when the house starts falling down on its own and has us wondering why and what did I do to deserve this and why is it happening to me.

Because you didn’t do your work. You didn’t finish your work. I know I haven’t. I keep at it. I keep finding those rooms and fixing them up, re-claiming those parts that I tucked away so long ago knowing I get back to them someday when I have better tools to get the job done.

The time is now. You and I have the tools. Let’s go to work. It is time now.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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