Accepting Your Ashe'

Leading a "spiritual life" incorporates a few basic concepts. Probably the most difficult concept for people to grasp is the accepting of change and the idea of ashe'. It sounds like two concepts but change is one facet of ashe'. Accepting change is the only way to be drama-free, stress-less, and lead a truly fulfilled life. People have a tendency to throw their hands up when things go wrong-this is not accepting change. This is giving up. True, change is inevitable but throwing your hands up is not the same as throwing your arms around it.

For instance, this is a common one; the car breaks down. Nearly every person this happens to says something to the effect of "this always happens to me!".Well, if you keep saying that and having that reaction it will keep happening to you because you are not learning the lesson. Shit breaks. Our bodies wear out, our hair goes grey, toys break, batteries run down, and machines fail. Do you really think all this has something to do with you? You have nothing to do with time and time and chance is all that makes your car break down. The more you complain and try to give it an identity of having something to do with you, the longer you will live in frustration. By trying to associate something with you that has nothing to do with your life, you are creating what is called a "false dilemma". You will continue to place blame or look for a solution to things that are beyond your control. It is a meaningless, exhausting cycle that humans LOVE. Let things be, accept that change occurs, and accept that the world does not revolve around us. The deities did not cause your car to break down and they certainly did not cause it to break down to punish you.

It did not "happen to you" it merely happened...and you were there.

You are interpreting meaningless happenstance as having something to do with you and then freaking out about it. You are filling your mind, body, and spirit with needless worry and stress. All this causes you to miss the entire meaning of ashe'.

If you have a period of things going well, expect that change is coming. It is inevitable. It is not bad nor good-it is ashe'. Change comes to teach us lessons. The sooner you accept and embrace change, the sooner and easier you will learn your lesson.The more you fight it, the more you fear it, the more desperate you are to resist ashe' the more intense your change will have to be. The more stubborn you are, the more dramatic your lesson will become in order for you to finally learn the lesson the gods have meant for you.

The ocean has the power to move great trees, to create new coves, lagoons, beaches, and carve away rock. Are one of these occurrences bad? Is it bad for the ocean to deposit drift wood on the beach? Is it bad for the ocean to deposit sand to create new land? Is it wrong for the ocean to carve away the mountains? No. While these are miraculous and intense forces they are not bad. It is ashe'. It is change.

Once you start to realize that your ashe', your changes, your lessons, are neither good or bad you can embrace your true self and life in entirety. Much of the unnecessary worry will be gone. You can now devote that energy to the path before you and not worry exactly "what" is on the path. Once you disassociate "change" with "bad" you will not fear it. You will find it easier to accept the ash'e the gods have sent you. You can fully acknowledge that part of your self that was consumed with negativity, worry, doubt, and fear. Ashe' is sent to teach and prepare us. "Trials" are ashe'. They happen because we are alive and here, and well, things are bound to happen if you are breathing! And thank the gods we are here to receive their lessons! It has always helped me to think of ashe' as not to prepare me for another change but to help prepare me to aid someone else with their change. In times when they are too worried or stressed to see that this ashe' or change they are experiencing is a lesson directly from the gods. It is a message sent because we are their children and they want us to progress and grow and achieve!

You will be able to live your true life and follow your own path once you stop fearing what is along the way. Each change is as valuable and valid as all the others. This does not mean you will stop feeling pain or loss when a painful change occurs but you will begin to see it as valid. The mountain being carved away by the ocean feels pain too but it knows the ocean means it no harm and that it is only how ashe' works.

Let the ashe' of the gods, the forces of nature, guide you. Accept them. Isn't that why you are on this path in the first place?