The Revolving Door: The Human Energy System
our material and spiritual selves. Understanding and accepting our own individual fears, challenges, and opportunities also becomes important, because it requires a willingness to destroy the limitations that narrow our sights. On my own path, I have faced many hurdles and challenges in order to break free of the rules governing my limited perceptions. Growing up in an upper-middle-class family, I knew myself as my family and culture knew me. My body was composed of organs, tissues, and blood, and it needed food and clothing. My mind required textbooks and instruction. My soul needed salvation, which was guaranteed by my weekly Sunday school attendance. It wasn’t until my twenties that I began to question the validity of these “concrete” rules. I went through two near-death experiences for which doctors could not diagnose causes. Though I did the “right things,” I wasn’t happy in my marriage. Although I was full of intelligence and ideas, books and universities couldn’t answer my questions. The past years have involved a search that has taken me from the jungles of Peru to the Tor of Glastonbury, England, and from anatomy texts to Hindu mysticism. I’ve studied Christianity at the seminary and tracked down the Bribri Indians in Costa Rica. On the path, I have met many fellow journeyers. One truth has emerged, a truth other travelers have repeated: understanding the self depends on accepting that there is much, much more to us than the physical shell we have been told is reality. Ywahoo has a beautiful way of describing this truth: “We are the days and the nights, and we are the stars that illumine the starry chambers.” She suggests that the sun and the moon dance within us, unfolding mystery. In addition to self-reliance, I believe the journey into the self requires that we learn to work within the human family and the forces of nature and change. Just as our purpose is a doorway for our own self-expression, it is also an opportunity to help others; because of this opportunity, fulfilling our purpose, living our dreams, and becoming happy are contingent upon transforming the barriers that prevent complete connection between others and us. Disjointed relationships can be based on a lack of understanding about our own or another’s true inner nature, or on actual real-life traumas. Being a revolving door means dealing with the people who are gumming up the works and opening to the people who keep us in the flow. Because of our interdependence, understanding our relationships with
. Ibid., 100.