Reaching In

REACHING IN

“Some people don’t know what “reaching in” means, despite the fact that for millennia the world’s wisdom traditions have majored in mapping various pathways to the soul…

     “When we’re young and wholly engaged with the external world, we may manage to feel “alive” for a while without an inner life. But when we experience diminishments and defeats – the kind that can come at any age and are inevitable when we get old – we run the risk of feeling dead before our time if we lack inner resources.”

     What do I mean by an “inner life”? I mean a largely silent, solitary process of reflection that helps us reclaim the “ground of our being” and root ourselves in something larger and truer than our egos.”

     When I hear or read the word ‘reach’ my mind goes to there being something I don’t have, something beyond my grasp, something not yet attained, an object I want to possess, perhaps, or a goal I have yet to achieve. But by using the phrase “reaching in” author and activist Parker Palmer invites us to direct our focus not to something we don’t have, but to someone we are.

     I believe Palmer is right when he says that in our younger years, what lies within does not appear very necessary, or for that matter, very real. When we are able to rely on our bodies, minds, and willpower to get what we want, who needs to reach in for anything? Why not ride the horse of our ego all the way home?

    But then there are those dark gifts that Palmer refers to as diminishments and defeats, those inevitable experiences when life becomes hurtful and overwhelming. Experiences of this sort can be gifts if we choose to reach in instead of turning away from our pain, for it is then that we may discover there is more to us than us! Call it soul, call it True Self, call it God, the reality is that we share in the existence of something that is “larger and truer than our egos.” I realize that affirming this may involve a leap of faith, but after the understandable reaction/resistance to what breaks our hearts, it may be a leap worth taking.

     One who did just that centuries ago, and who gave voice to what he discovered was St. Augustine who stated, “You are in me deeper that I am in me.”