We are all on a journey. As young children we feel fully connected to our sun. We are present with life. We feel our emotions as they arise. We act intuitively. We listen to our heart. We feel connected to others and the world around us.
Then we grow older and we start to hear a voice inside our mind. It seems to float above our head like a dark cloud. This voice pulls us out of the present. It has us reflect on the past or worry about the future. The voice decides we are better than some people, and worse than others. It teaches us we are separate from others and the world around us. It informs us that, if we are feeling bad now, then we will feel better if….we have more friends, more power, more money, more things, more and more and more.
We start to believe this voice. It is very convincing and it seems that a lot of people are listening to it who appear to look happy. We want to be happy too so we start to follow the voice’s messages: you are not enough so you need to work harder, be better, move faster, get more, have more, and be more. At first we feel powerful, so we keep following. Harder and harder we work. Higher and higher we climb. Further and further we travel.
Until something happens. Usually an experience that knocks us down to our knees. And the bubble bursts. We realize we don’t know who we are anymore. We miss life. Real life. The life that immerses us in all the colours of the rainbow. The real colours. We miss connection with others. Real connection. The kind that has us open and deeply honest. We miss the sun in our heart. Our real heart. The one that connects us with all of life. The one that has been with us from the beginning. The one that has been watching us on our journey aware that we would follow this path as all others have done before. The one that has trusted we would eventually return.
And we do return. Now we are wise. We are wise of the ways of the journey. We know the voice will continue to be loud and enticing, but we know it is a path we have traveled before. A path with many promises that lead to nowhere. We are now home. It feels so good to just to be. So we decide to stay.
The metaphors that make up the story in my children’s book The Girl and the Sun were molded piece by piece from my own pain and subsequent drive to overcome it. I use these metaphors every day to parent myself and my children. They are not my own ideas. They come from many teachers along the way: Anita Johnston, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Jeff Foster, Marianne Williamson, and many counselors and colleagues who guided me along my journey. Through The Girl and The Sun I can now share them with the world. Please visit www.ashleyandthesun.com/free-handouts-parents-and-teachers for free handouts and a thorough explanation of the sun, cloud and rainbow metaphors.