In her most developed and true female capacity, a hen can lay one egg every single day for nearly two years in a row, in her lifetime. Ruminating rooster or not, she will bellow her ‘egg song’ into the sky calling out her new gift to the world. It is uncertain though as to whether she sings for pleasure or pain but it is a guarantee that if eggs are on my plate I am singing out praise and joy!
In all seriousness though, the hen’s daily work is a gift. Whether the egg is perfectly poached for brunch or fertilized into the fuzziest, cutest thing ever – the work she does means something to the world. Or have you ever seen a sheep with an overgrown fleece? Can you contemplate that? Wool just grows on sheep. It’s what they do. In the summertime, the mean and thorny blackberry bushes come alive in the ditch with delicate white flowers. Busy with bees, that little flower transforms, working itself into the eventual cobbler, warming bellies aside glowing October jack-o-lanterns.
Everywhere around us, production happens from an innate ability to do something. To be something. And when it comes from a natural place, it is usually radiant. A wool sweater in the snow; a slice of blackberry cobbler. Fried eggs cascading over two warmed corn tortillas messy with sour cream, chipotle salsa and an entire avocado! Yet a job recruiter would advise you to add metrics to your resume in place of those “soft” innate skills. So there’s the challenge. To be the chicken. Not a chicken. The chicken. Or the hen with her awesome treats. Or the journalist, or the insurance guy, or the dentist….
That search for natural skill can feel like an itch that can’t be scratched – you reach and reach. You acquire objects to extend the length of your arm. You ask a friend to scratch ‘a little to the right, a little more, up’. But it still itches. So you set your mind to it. You set an intention, you practice and you transcend.
New to me is a Buddhist term that identifies the characteristics necessary to moving forward in your life from a place that is good and natural. Spiritual Warriors, although traditionally reference the Buddhist social revolution in Tibet, can also define what it takes to itch that scratch – My friend and mentor, Dana Damara, writes about being a Spiritual Warrior in her book Oms from the Mat:
“It means recognizing the qualities within yourself that are the innate gifts you were born with and expressing them full out – without fear of being judged. It means knowing the qualities within you that keep you from realizing your most authentic self, blessing them one by one with compassion and then replacing them with qualities that serve you better. It means visualizing your Self, every day, as you know your soul to be: full of love, light, harmony, compassion, joy, and gratitude for life as you see it right Now.”
There are so many things to do and be in a day. And it is so easy to forget to move from that natural place that is already in us. Maybe it is about harnessing your spirit animal (mine is obviously a chicken!). But mostly it is about harnessing your spirit. So be a mother hen who bakes amazing cobbler for the harvest moon. Or the one in the flock that stands out for its wonderful differences. Or a Spiritual Warrior. But make sure you are also being you. I am learning that it is the most important and perhaps the hardest thing to do sometimes. So I am going to set my mind to it, practice and be sure to get a good breakfast. CACKAW!!
AWE 