Barn-Burning

Barn’s burnt down----now I can see the moon.  - Mizuta Masahide

This is us in November 2011 standing in front of our burnt house, holding a newborn Phoenix.

And here we are again, a global inferno.

A universal Barn-Burning.  

We are, all of us, mourning the loss of what WAS and we are facing what IS without a roof over our heads, without walls to give us location, protection, reassurance, without a front door to welcome people in.

All of us, standing under the same vast sky, surrounded by the smoldering rubble of what was our lives, no longer protected against the unknown night. 

And yet.

Every time my barn burns, I try to remember: now, nothing blocks the moon.

Nothing stands in the way of me and the truth of the view.

The premise of being human is that at some point things ARE going to fall apart; there’s no avoiding it.  

All things must go down into darkness to discover the light.  

Birth-death-rebirth is a pattern imitated in all of life and all major spiritual and wisdom traditions.  

Birth: Death: Rebirth.

Barn-Building: Barn-Burning: Moon.

We are in the Deconstruction.

When everything you thought you were, everything you thought you could count on, everything that defined you, is stripped away and you are left naked in the moonlight.

Grieve the loss. 

Mourn the life you no longer have.

Feel the feelings that ebb and flow like moon-led tides.  

But also know: barns burn when it’s time to expand.