It has been a year now, to the day, since I met my love Bianca. It all began on a moonlit night on a stroll around the village Church. A year later with this great gal and, boy, have we taken out the trash.
It’s a funny thing to say, but it is true.
My Dad commented a while ago that recycling, and especially upcycling, is almost a spiritual metaphor. Indeed. Transforming something base into something beautiful is a spiritual undertaking. Ekharte Tolle has a great line “Be an alchemist. Transmute base metal to gold, suffering to consciousness, disaster to enlightenment”. I would add, “and trash to treasure”.
Bianca and I have been doing this with our home– co-creating everything inside from trash. Everything in our place, from the tables to the lamps, to the glass and coffee set are made from things that are thrown away in the village. Bianca is always up for a challenge and full of creativity, so we’ve had a lot of fun.
But, of course what one is doing outside oneself is a reflection of what one is doing on the inside. Bianca and my creative recycling points to a deeper process within us.
In this day and age, our relationships, and in particular the dynamic between masculine and feminine energies, are a reflection of our relationship with the Earth. As we can see around us this dynamic hasn’t been very healthy or balanced. I beleive we need to face the deeply unconscious values and dynamics at the root of this, head on. The first place to do so, is within us. The second place, is in our relationships. The process of doing so ain’t gonna be easy (you’re gonna get dirty taking out the trash!) but it is an essential part of the alchemy.
To have had a beautifully femine, daringly brave and crafty creative partner (Binaca) to explore alchemical transforming old ego-bound ways to new enlightened ways has been a great blessing. As Paulo Cohelo warns at the begining of his book The Alchemist, sure a journey is not for the faint of heart. But just like in the book, the journey is a grand and golden adventure.
Indeed, it has been a golden year.
