Receiving Right as Rain
Receiving sounds easy. Receiving sounds like we would all want that, someone to offer us something and all we have to do is accept. But is it that easy? What happens inside you when you are offered something unexpectedly? Do you open to receive it? Do you cringe and shut down? How easy is it?
When the weather turns volatile, as it does so often in the Spring, temperatures fluctuating wildly, rain and sun alternating hourly, your body and mind can find it hard to know where to rest. You can begin to feel irritated, uneasy with so much change, so much movement. One of the ways to respond to such movement, such random fluctuation, is to practice being receptive. To practice being receptive, you might need to fortify yourself and your intentions, you might need to practice saying something to yourself like “I can receive this” or “I can accept this” whatever it is. It could simply be an inconvenience like rain. Or it could be more something more devastating like an argument with a family member, a loss of a job or a relationship, or even a death. How might you receive these things?
Hexagram 2 - The Receptive is all about earth and the idea of earth as embodied in a steady and loyal mare. For us, in our time and place, this image may not be so clear, as the mare is not a common sight in our cities anymore. But we certainly know the steady, loyal and tireless earth. The earth, who these days takes more than her share of toxic waste and somehow turns it into beauty each and every day, each and every season. We all know this. If you look you will see how each Spring, the earth returns to us the hope of all things in growth, all things in their green, their blossom and their potential for fullness.
In being receptive, you are willing to embrace the moment of yielding to rain, to sunshine, to dark even. You are willing to receive the nourishment of whatever the world decides to bring you. You are willing to see what grows when you allow such nourishment to be taken in. Sometimes you become caught in the cultural ethic of constant motion, you forget that to receive you may have to be still. You forget that without any effort on your part there will be alternation of movement and stillness, light and dark, noise and silence.
The Receptive invites you to look at what will nourish growth, what you will need to carry on with your work, what you will use to connect you with your world. What kind of reception will you give what the world offers you?