Our Leviathans

" A loose tooth will not rest until it is pulled out." - Ethiopia

I used to invest a good bit of energy into suffering- hanging onto thoughts that aroused anger, resentment and sorrow. I had several "teeth" that kept hanging on: lost loves, health challenges, financial woes, fractured friendships. I chattered and complained about the teeth, and assigned blame for their loss. I engaged in a kind of "dental anger," grinding and chewing on every bit of discontent about the looseness of the teeth and their eventual demise. I continually confused pain with suffering. Pain is powerful but temporary, while suffering is our chosen response to the pain in our lives. Pain wakes us up to the desire for pleasure and peacefulness; suffering like anesthesia, disconnects us from our awareness of Spirit and plunges us into a monstrous sea of troubles and tribulations.

I've come to realize that suffering is exhausting, but letting go of suffering is inevitable, because Spirit is moving toward a future that we desire, even though we may not recognize it. Even our monstrous, Leviathan suffering is like a loose tooth, ready to be pulled from the sea and vanquished. Spirit encourages us to stay out of the battle, to stop pushing against those elements of suffering in our lives, not because we are weak but rather because of the strength of our relationship to Spirit. Even as the pain in our lives continues relentlessly, we can forgo the suffering, and allow the "tooth" that we are hanging onto to leave. We can imagine that the force of the pain in our lives will yield in equal or greater measure, the pleasure of our freedom from pain. When the tooth is finally out, do we enjoy the absence of pain? Do we bask in the healing power of Spirit, or do we recount the struggle we have endured, or the remaining sadness in our lives? Our choice is to continue to connect with Spirit in our thinking, to enter the sea of life without fear of Leviathans, or to hang onto our powerless relationship with Suffering, and invite new Leviathans to emerge. We have countless opportunities to align our thinking with Love and let go of fear. We are whole and complete in the arms of Loving Spirit.