Walking the Knife’s Edge – A Message of Celebration

I was interviewed for a podcast yesterday. Towards the end of the interview, I was asked if I had any final messages for the listeners.

I took a moment to listen in with my ancestors. One of my grandfathers stepped forward with a message his lineage has been sharing for many months now. I’m going to share it with you today.

Celebration.

It is a message of celebration. Not in a 4th of July fireworks kind of way (please, no). Rather, the sense of celebration (or praise) that arises by way of a deep appreciation for both the beauty and pain of life.

They keep showing me this image of walking along the edge of a knife.

On one side is all the turmoil, trouble, chaos, overwhelm and heaviness of daily living. Of living in a world where entire species go extinct every day, where children are separated from parents, of oceans filling with trash and toxicity.

On the other side is the aching beauty of being alive:

• the smile on my 3-year old’s face;
• the shadows of leaves dancing on the earth;
• the breeze caressing my skin;
• the wonder of being human with the gift of being able to feel, and to give and receive love.

These grandfathers speak of walking the knife edge without falling onto either side.

Slipping off the edge into celebration is as dangerous as falling into the heaviness. Neither lead to the deft balance and skillfulness that is required to fully live.

They say that one must embrace the grief and loss and pain without becoming lost in it.

One must simultaneously celebrate the beauty of each moment without losing touch of the reality of pain and loss that lives along side it.

These grandfathers give the example of loving a specific tree all the while knowing the city may decide to cut it down tomorrow (this has happened to a number of my tree-friends recently).

I am reminded that anything can be destroyed in a moment. I am told that the preciousness of life extends from this truth and this is why we must celebrate all that we do have now.

They caution to not allow the fear of loss to harden our hearts or dull our ability to deeply feel our appreciation for the beauty that exists in this moment.

They say that to walk the knife’s edge is to celebrate all of life…

…the beauty and the pain. This is what it truly is to be human… to fully live.

To be fully alive and fully human is to stand on the edge of the knife and to allow ourselves to be pierced by the beauty and pain of every moment.

For you:

What lights up in you as you read this message from my grandfathers? Grief, anger, resistance perhaps? Or maybe a fierce joy? Whatever it is, it is all welcome.

PS. to deepen into a relationship with your ancestors that allows you to more skillfully and deftly walk the knife’s edge, I invite you to join me in September for an Ancestral Lineage Healing Intensive.

We’ll spend 3-days together engaging lineage ancestors in heart-centered ritual through prayer/song, visioning practices, and group dialogue. Having walked through this ritual myself numerous times now, I can speak to the beauty and life-changing power of this work. I’d love to share it with you.