The world is a mystery, a beautiful mystery – and everything is perfect – if we manage to hold a wide perspective, that goes beyond our interests and person serving our limited goals and ideas of what and who we are. We are always much more than what we conceive to be. Because of this we should be careful with what I call ‘the rock in the shoe’. This rock is the world – and we encounter it s we walk the world gracefully or in passion. The difference is about the attention we give to this bothersome element that crosses out path.
I see the rock in the shoe as being announced by the declaration of blaming others for our own lack of graceful walk in the world. I mean, if we walk the world in grace, carefully, we will see how the world and its paths are winding – and from this point of view any missteps or stumbling is always made by our own lack of foreseeing what is meeting us around the corner, even if the path itself gives subtle notice about what is waiting ahead.
When we stumble the sad logical move as a human is to find a scapegoat – and yes we can find many… but is your own stumbling really justified by adversaries?
Òkànràn’Túrúpòn says the following:
Èké kò sunwòn ara eni
Òdàlà kò sunwòn ara eni
B’ ómodé bá ´nyólè dà
Ohun abe-‘nú á maa yó won se
O dífá fún ajùbòná
Tí ó lo ´nfe obìnrin oluwo
In translation we read:
Falsehood is not good for anyone
Commitment breaking is not
Good for anyone
If the immature (child) act secretly
To break commitments,
Secret things will happen to them.
This was the teaching of Ifa for an assistant priest
Who was going to proposition the wife
Of the Oluwo, the high priest of
Orunmila
This Ifá stanza is quite profound because of two matters in particular; the reminder of falsehood not being good and the second being that you should not desire to search out what is not yours. The second part is clearly an admonition to realize your destiny and assume the consequences of it – this will always brings antagonism, because the world, with so many wayward people and sleepwalkers, will recent a person that makes its destiny.
The rock in the shoes can be experienced as antagonism on your path but even more as a product of the worlds envy where the actors in the world is assigning you a role of scapegoat for their own failings. In this lies plots and plans to take down the signpost – avoiding the work on self that brings a realization of Fate and destiny.
I mean, when we walk the world and feel this discomfort that motivates us to search outwards – we should search inwards and see how my path and its choices are affecting the world. Because ultimately we need to accept that we are the author of the consequences in our lives, for good or for ill. By bringing blaming of others to a halt we will retrace our path and in our adversaries we will find the compass that rests in shadows. The compass of night that turns our steps in the direction of the path, the Way that is yours, so antagonism is not evil, it Is the pointers on your compass trying to tell you something through the mouth and voice of storms and nights.
The question is; do you listen and change your walk so you can continue your graceful walk or do you bring your path to a halt and thrown yourself into the abyss of the accuser and from there find yourself and your antagonism in the wilderness of oblivion?
So, I say: measure well if you are the appointed and needed opposer - or if the obstacle is a stone or rock in your shoe that you with ease can remove so you can walk the world gracefully. I mean, chose your fights – as you chose your dignity…. Chose this as you chose your roles as warrior and lover – gracefully and with a calm mind and steady heart….so you can chose what makes part of your path and what is distractions…