Kill the past and come back to life

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”—Thich Nhat Hanh

You’ve probably heard about the cicadas, how large swaths of the U.S. (maybe other countries, too??) are about to be invaded by 1.5 million of them per acre. The thing that so intrigues me is how these wingless nymphs have existed for 17 frickin’ years, feeding on the sap of tree roots, just waiting for their big moment.

That incredible patience and timing is a useful metaphor for my own life and for my dreams of a world that works for all of us. It doesn’t always appear that we’re making progress or healing our divides or coming together like we could. The world’s biggest secret (that we all really love each other) often seems buried, like the cicadas, two feet underground.

That’s why those of us who know about the invisible energy realm must fall in love with things we can’t yet see with our eyes. It’s up to us to call forth a new world.

Yes, it’s daunting to focus on the cicadas-to-be or our visions for the future, but once we surrender the past (or kill it as the above headline, borrowed from a Pink Floyd song suggests), the new world can emerge.

Thich Nhat Hanh once wrote about the sunflowers of France’s Dordogne region where Plum Village is located.

“Visitors to Plum Village in April don’t see sunflowers,” he wrote. “But the local farmers see them clearly because they’ve plowed the earth, sown the seeds, spread the manure.

“When something has not yet manifested, we tend to think it’s in the realm of nonbeing and when it manifests, it’s in the realm of being.”

But it’s all one thing. We can’t wait to see the big yellow flowers to say they’re there. They exist, just like those cicadas, just like the items on your vision board, just like the love and possibilities we often suppress with our rigid armor of perception.

The words displayed on my dashboard (“Everything always works out for me”) are unfailingly true. Even when I can’t see it. And I remember, it’s only a matter of time. #222 Forever.

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World) that has just been turned into an app. Badass ACIM (badass-acim.com)