Neutrality Allows Us to See Bugs as Bugs

As a kid I grew up on a dead end street with acres of woods behind me. I used to go out into the woods and explore. I admired the lady slippers growing wild, the scent of the land and leaves. Often I would roll over a rock to see if there were bugs underneath. When there were bugs, I loved to see them scurry when the lid of their home uncovered them. If I lifted a rock and there were no bugs, I was disappointed in the lack of activity.

I still walk through the woods. I never see lady slippers or roll over rocks, but the woods still have magic for me. I breathe in the scents and now I'm apt to sit on a rock, and just look around.

Yesterday after I came back from the woods my neighbor was on her steps and suddenly she blurted "you have a spider on your leg!" I looked down and realized I had walked through the spider's web and had trouble flinging the critter off me. "Eeeooo" I said, as the insect crept off. Then I instantly thought of the difference between my childhood fascinations of crawly critters and my adult view of a (small) spider on my leg. Then I gently lifted the spider and part of its web off my leg and onto the brick patio.

I wondered ...when did bugs become creepy? As a child I had no "filter" about the bugs. No interpretation. No "history" or "story" or any "stuff" in the way. They were just bugs.

That's what having a great neutrality is about. A way of being in the world that I strive for. Not separation, not defense or resistance, but seeing things just as they are. Just bugs. What makes bugs creepy is fear, but there was no reason to have fear of the little spider on my leg. The little spider triggered old fear from the past that had no relevance in that moment.

Kind of the way people, circumstances and events trigger us into believing there is something wrong or bad or scary simply because of a bad memory, an experience from the past. Staying present, seeing things as they are, means a bug is just a bug.

Spiders come and go but bigger things in life can make us unhappy or pull us off center. What's bugging you? Does it repeat itself? Is there Truth in it? Can you see it for what it is? Can you witness it? Or, can you let it go?

Can you breathe around it and give it space? If you feel a strong emotion in your body, can you create a conversation with it?

A clear energy system helps us to release the past and the little things that can get in the way of our joy. Life's triggers may not change, but our reaction to them does. Our reactions are, after all, the only thing that is under our own control.