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Birthdays

It was my birthday last month.

For me, birthdays are always a time for reflection. I like to think about my new years intentions and see how things are unfolding, what adjustments I’d like to make to ensure that I am in alignment for manifesting those intentions and to see the correlation between what I’d intended and what is actually showing up.

Call it my self-accountability check -in.

Sometimes I make startling discoveries (I completely forgot what I said I was going to do this year!) and other times there isn’t much to discover (it’s pretty much how I’d envisioned it.)

But these extremes are unlikely these days. Usually I am not as blindsided to discover that I am way off course (thankfully I am usually pretty aware of what I’ve been manifesting) and rarely do I find that everything is as I’d envisioned it, because life happens.

It reminds me of what my meditation teacher used as an analogy once. Meditation is like flying a plane. You know where you are taking off from and you know what the destination is, but all along the way is constant course correcting for unseen elements.

This is exactly what feng shui is like. There are elements that are within our control (placement of furniture, the colors we surround ourselves by, our clutter, what we buy, cleanliness, our intentions, etc) and then there are the aspects where LIFE SHOWS UP. We strive to find the balance between inner and outer, between seen and unseen, between control and grace. This is the essence of the yin yang, the balance that permeates our bodies, our space and our lives.

So this birthday I realized how many of my intentions were manifesting (and seemingly all at the same time.) I started to be excited and I also realized that I was overwhelmed. So many opportunities! Surely each one of these would require more time, more effort, more attention. How would I do it all?! My concept of how many things I could handle at the same time was being put to the test. It was a crisis and I needed some wisdom of how to handle all of this simultaneously.

I came across Albert Einstein’s rules for work:

1. Out of clutter, find simplicity
2. From discord find harmony
3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

I think that these rules are a great approach for us to tackle our homes. Keep it simple, rebalance what is imbalanced and no matter how bad a situation looks there is always an opportunity lying within our drawers, and closets and bags and piles and shelves and storage units…an opportunity to transform all of our lead into gold.

And the same is true for my situation. In the midst of my “difficulty” is an opportunity.

The third of Einstein’s rules for work is very similar to the John F Kennedy description of the Chinese character for Crisis:

“When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.” -John F. Kennedy 04.12.1959

This is the chinese concept of “wei ji” or Danger/Opportunity. It means that every moment of imbalance or “crisis” presents an opportunity to evolve or transform a situation into something better.

So if the concept is that sometimes when our lives come to a crisis point, or opportunity point…I wanted to find the good in all of this. I believe that the universe is bringing me everything I have been asking for as long as it is for my highest good. I believe that I can always handle whatever is brought to me. And I believe that even though the answers are unknown to me at this moment, that the entire universe is conspiring to help me achieve my goals, wishes and dreams.

We/Ji (Crisis/Opportunity) sounds like the term “Wei Chi” as well.

What is Wei Chi?

Wei Chi, in Oriental medicine, is the defensive chi that circulates on the surface of the body and protects it from external factors. Chi is energy on the brink of becoming matter, and matter at the point of becoming energy. It is vital energy, the life force. This defensive Wei Chi energy protects the body from pathogens and from harmful environmental factors. It is what we might call the immune system.

Wei Chi is the final hexagram of the I Ching, the Book of Changes, and is titled “Before Completion.” This hexagram indicates a time when the transition from disorder to order it not yet completed. The task is great and full of responsibility. It is nothing less than that of leading the world out of confusion back to order, but it is a task that promises success.

So here I am. Relying on wisdom from long ago. Taking each step into the unknown, moment by moment. I hear my mother words whispering on the wind: “there is more to be revealed.”