Prologue: This article was written during one visit to my family in Australia. My current visit has now been over 2 years (since the big C began), and this article's message still rings true today.
Ram Das said “If you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family”
Oh, Ram Das, how right you are!!! My friends, I’m sure you know exactly what I mean, that good old F word!
Family
I’ve been on a pretty good ride since returning to my home for family reasons 10 weeks ago! Well, we all have really! Not that I ever thought I was enlightened.
Loving, caring, and patient to a degree, totally! But ummmmmmmmm maybe I'm not after all.
All relationships are a constant ebb and flow! Most of the time we can juggle the energy exchange. But what happens when everything goes through the washing machine! Things get said in the heat of the moment, emotions flying everywhere, self-projections being slungshot across the room. And then a moment of realisation from behind the front line - unity, unconditional love, a bond no matter how different the human elements are in each of us. There is that nurturing family nature, maybe slightly dysfunctional...but hey no one’s perfect!
We grow, we realise, we understand, and yet we still argue about how to cut up a tomato or what way the toilet paper should go on the toilet roll holder. Those trivial things that make the F word real! You can always trust family to give you their real honest opinions. Not the filtered versions we see on social media, but that real cutting, jaw clenching, heart-pumping truth. When you hoped they’d put a softer filter over the picture before showing you. But where’s the growth in that, right!
I had a reading about a week ago, and when entering into my human family realm, the woman sitting in front of me laughed and said, “your family doesn’t really understand you huh!”. I agreed. Recent happenings have left me feeling like I’m from another planet to my family, but I guess that’s what is forged through time and space of living apart. “Although your mother doesn’t understand you at all, she claims that you are her greatest achievement in this life, almost like her claim to fame”, the reading continued to produce information that I scoffed at!
Two days ago, I took my mum out for the day and shared with her the information I was given about our relationship a week prior to the reading. My mum smiled and said, “that’s all true you know, you are my greatest achievement in life, I just don’t know how to tell you”.
So, my lesson goes - how simple communication can be, and how difficult we can make it Simplify. Adjust. Be truthful. Whatever you say and do is on you, you are not responsible for other’s actions and reactions. Repeat!
Family really can be our greatest strength and weakness in this life…
Final words from Tara
If you missed the 15hr YTT Refresher course, and wish to connect with your yoga family, you can always apply to be part of my Teacher's Mentoring Group. Although this is currently for local Newcastle teachers, please let me know if this is something that interests you as an online program.