The Rock

This post was originally a guest post done for my friend Fiona at http://www.yearinamerica.net

Back in the day, I was part of a really cool woman’s mystery school and leadership program called the Priestess Path Apprenticeship. This program was truly amazing and opened the way for deep personal growth.  This group of 24 women gathered together once a month and spent time in circle exploring many mystical practices and initiations aimed at making us confront our  fear and inner-demons in order to know ourselves better. It was very powerful work.

One of the things we did was called the Quest. Each of us was lead on a journey down a dark path through an unknown forest. There were many stops along the way designed to challenge you and make you think. At one stop you were asked how heavy your past emotional baggage weighed on you.  Then you were given a big rock to carry with you along the path to represent your baggage.

Let me tell you that carrying that rock sucked! It was awkward and took so much energy. It weighed me down. At each new stop along the trail it became more and more irritating. The longer I carried it, the heavier it became and the more I focused on it. I was not able to enjoy the cool stuff I was coming across along the path because I was so focused on carrying the rock and how much it sucked. The rock became the focus of everything.

Finally, I got fed up and decide to throw the rock off into the woods. Boy what a relief.  I felt free. The Quest was fun again. I wondered why I did not ditch the rock sooner.

Interesting enough, I was the only one who chose to ditch their rock. Everyone else kept lugging the thing along until they came to a stop where someone else relived them of it. It never occurred to them that they might have a choice in the matter.

I wonder how many of you are carrying around a Rock of your own without giving thought to the idea that you have a choice in the matter.

There is always a choice.

Choose to let it go and focus on what feels good to you right now.

Choose to enjoy the adventure.

Ditch the Rock!