Most people have heard the ubiquitous story of the oyster and the pearl but not everyone has heard the full story. Myth says that the oyster must first be dredged from the bottom of the darkest ocean and the shell pried open in order to retrieve the pearl. And then, to retain its lustre, it must be polished and kept warm against the skin and its beauty shared with all the world.
The symptom is the grit the psyche uses to create the gift and your gift will shine with a radiance in proportion to the depths you had to dive into your shadow self and the effort you needed to expend in self-development and introspection in order to attend the wounds your being was calling you to heal.
Yes, the sand becomes a pearl … but not without effort, courage, frustration, agitation, patience, willpower and struggle. The oyster isn’t intentionally creating something of beauty; it is merely managing pain in the best way it can to not only survive but to thrive.
So too, when the body alerts you to a wound, work with it … not with expectation of something better, but simply with the acknowledgement that it can be no other way for now.
Step by step and breath by breath be guided to those aspects that can be dredged out of your emotional depths. Work diligently and patiently, work with tenacity and curiosity. And don’t give up because this is the polishing – to ripen and become what you need to be in the world
And once you have recognised what you have brought into the light, find your tribe and share your gift and always remember where and how you received it. This is your initiation and your obligation so that we can all learn and grow together.