Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:
Q: What's today's wisdom?
A: "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."
- Morrie Schwartz
Posts
We are interpenetrated beings; mutuality is our way. In that way, we are interbeing. “Being,” as a verb, means process, change, and interconnectedness. And so, to be “shaped and fashioned by what we love” mutually involves self and others. They are inseparable. If you truly love one, you must love the other. Anything else appears like, but is not, love. If you are doing things for others without compassion for yourself, for example, we call that accommodation. Women tend to be accommodators; it’s built into their psyches through culture and history and shaped by patriarchal power structures. But, what is not usually added to this truth is that, to allow someone to accommodate (as men are typically conditioned to do), is to, not only objectify the other, diminish your own being as well.
ReplyDeleteThis drawing is fascinating to me in how it depicts two figures, the green one of which feels feminine to me and the brown one, which feels masculine. The figures are connected in such a way that it seems that the green figure is penetrating the brown figure, unsurprisingly, at the solar plexus, the chakra related to the emotional center, and associated with self-esteem, confidence, will, and empowerment. On the surface, it appears as if the brown (masculine) figure is dominating the smaller, softer figure. But, if we step back, we see a circle formed over a scale-like cushion, both of which suggests balance. For me, it is clear what this drawing represents: without emotional balance and recognition of our interbeing, we are no doubt (mis)formed and (mis)informed. Both understanding and knowledge will only serve degenerative aspects of consciousness, and will lead to (self) destruction. We cannot thrive, we cannot grow without self-care. At the same time, we cannot create sustainable relationships and a sustainable environment (earth) if we are self-centered. Without this understanding, we are helpless to “learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
I cracked up when those two figures emerged and I was taken by the deer-fox appearance of the brown figure, being completely happy with the way he(!) is or looks. Thus speaking to the apple-turned-French-farmer's-wife with a level of confidence that the other person hasn't yet experienced for herself.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment, Paul, you shaped into words what lay unformed in my mind and gave it more depth.