Turkey and Transformation

Uncle Eddie is drinking a little too much and grandma can’t hear. The kids tore the hinges off my office door and another took a crap behind my daughter’s playhouse. Yea! It’s Thanksgiving time! That time of year that many of us cling to the possibility that this time…it will be magical (and it is going to be magical, by god…if it friggin’ kills all of us…)! Mmmm. Thanksgiving. La la la la la. It is the holiday time.

During your holiday ritual, allow yourself to drift back and think about the time of season that it is.

It is autumn and damn near to winter. Autumn is a time of dying, falling and decomposing, which is followed by winter. Winter is a prolonged period of seeming and literal death, of sleep, of dark. Few leaves are on the trees. Many summer animals are hiding. The winter wind hurts my cheeks. Sludge and more sludge. It’s dark and cold and the darkness just seems to linger—like a house guest who has overstayed their visit. Then…just as you begin to entertain the thought that “maybe this year, spring will not actually arrive”, that this year, perhaps the universe is out of kilter and spring shall be no more, it comes. Then, hallelujah! Newness. Birth. More light. Sweet flowers. Green returns (seemingly on one day). Spring. is mating season…Out of the lingering fall of autumn, through the death of winter, comes life anew in spring. Nature is poetic and beautiful, yes

You are nature. Unless you believe that you were beamed here by some mysterious cosmic spaceship, then you have come up, out of the earth, just as all other living matter has. And if you buy into this thought, then you must accept that you are nature. You are a part of it and are it. Everything you do is natural, as you are nature. How could it be otherwise? You are the voice of the earth. If not you, what?

If you roll with this idea–that you are nature, then so too are you bound to the inevitable and constant transformations of all nature. We know that the only constant in the universe is change. Change is happening all around us and to us…all of the time and will continue to do so every minute of every day, the rest of our lives. Cycles of birth and death and rebirth. There exists a wonderful example of this transformation in the form of our Thanksgiving dinner. Death (whatever plant matter grandma has baked and that turkey there…sustains your life. Plant matter or animal, life is feeding on death, to continue life.

If you are the typical American on this uniquely American of days—you might find yourself, as I do, sitting on the couch with the game drearily chattering in the background. Family members bump about in the blur of your wine and turkey stupor. Your pants beg you to let your belt loose. You do. Wow. That feels much better. Much better. Bloated to the gills, you are sleepy, sleepy, sleepy from too much turkey… Your mind wanders to all sorts of places. This after eating sit, as people are cleaning dishes, chatting at the dinner table, going to the bathroom and generally wandering before regrouping in some way, is my favorite. As the blood leaves my brain, to fiercely work at digesting all that I just put in my stomach, I dream. Foggy brain time.  If you find yourself in a “this year” comatose, allow yourself to mentally hacky sack with this:

How will you choose to change this year?

There will be a ton of changes you will be a part of, of which, you will have no control over, whatsoever. No doubt about that. Death may come into your life this year, sickness, promotion, chaos, love, peace. Who knows yet?. We have a forecast of certain change ahead.

Considering how much uncontrollable change is in our lives, what will you control? What change will you CHOOSE to make? What new-ness, of your own deciding and making, will come out of you, as we enter a new calendar year? What part of you might die, be cleared away and made room for something new?

Again, change is inevitable. What change will you (at least try to) control?

Symbolically, the garden is a symbol of the soul. Doesn’t that make sense? Every time I read, hear or say that, I think, “Yea. That’s right”. My feelings might stem from my loving to garden. In the garden, you see a constant show of “Out of death, grows life”. If you look, if you pay attention, you will see new stuff “going on” every day. It is a living, evolving canvas. Any change you make to that garden is temporary, no matter how permanent your intentions.

What mangy growth do you spy in your garden? What plants have appeared, Have any invasive ones? Have you done battle with interlopers, who are determined to eat and decimate your roses, those beautiful flowers you give so much time to? What plants do you see that have potential, but need more attention? Do they need to be moved someplace else—perhaps one with less intense light and more water? When you look around that garden, what conditions and maintenance are necessary, in order to get all of your plants in your garden, to thrive? Make a list and follow through on it.

Time to clean out the waste, unless you want to still have that crap around, come spring time. We cut out the overgrowth, the seasonal plants that have expired, the parasites we find. We want to open planting space and prepare for the dramatic return of spring, in order to encourage new, desired growth. We need to clean out, to weed the unwanted or downright poisonous.

What stands in your way from realizing your higher self and your dreams? Let’s not play games. Here is the answer:  You…of course. Just you. It is a frame of mind.

Some find such a thought difficult to accept and own. But, the sooner you do own it, the faster you will begin to grow. Ever desire to be super man? Ever desire to fly? Well, until you accept that you can fly and will and will log the hours necessary to “figure it all out”, to learn to fly right (like not into buildings and whatnot), then you are grounded, indefinitely.

Get rid of all that is holding you back—whether unhealthy relationships, habits that led to poor health, poor financial structuring, lifestyle choices, etc. Whatever it is, whatever things those are…which are uniquely yours, cast them out. There is no room in the boat. With your greatest of gusto, cast them into the sea, just to feel how fast you can row your boat without them.

In the garden, remember that when weeding, unless you get them by the roots, they will come back. Streamline your life and promote only healthy growth in your garden, only life affirming elements. In doing so, you will find a greater peace, balance, health and stillness. Cultivate the positive, life-affirming relationships you have and let go of all that holds you back in any way. Once you let go of that damn heavy luggage attached to your waste (which you may not have even realized you were dragging all this year…at least), you are going to find that you can then run so fast…and skip…. and hop.

Happy Holidays.

Jim Hart

Jim Hart is the founder of The Hart Technique www.harttechnique.com and The International Theatre Academy Norway.



5 Responses to “Turkey and Transformation”

1. Molly Rae says:

   November 29, 2009 at 1:00 pm

   This was beautifully spoken, and these words of wisdom that are stated are very simple to conceptualize, yet harder to achieve and set to action. Your ideas are very inspiring, and I believe it would be extremely beneficial to take these thoughts forward and give your speculative opinion as to how one can go about obtaining these goals of letting go, step-by step. How do we grab those issues by the roots and lift them out of our lives? What are positive actions that we can take other than having the appropriate mind set to let go of the things that hold us back? How can we aid our natural being and take control when certain fates are beyond our power? Thank you so much, I hope this will inspire a wonderful response to your already enlightening piece.
2. anonymous says:

   November 30, 2009 at 8:23 am

   That was very well-put advice. Nothing could be more true. Unfortunately our modern lifestyles of constant distraction and striving for money and egotistical fulfillment make this task of reflecting on our lives difficult at times.
3. James Hart says:

   November 30, 2009 at 9:22 am

   Thanks for your support. I sure appreciate it. Jim Hart http://www.harttechnique.com
4. James Hart says:

   December 7, 2009 at 1:28 pm

   Anonymous,

   I want to remind you of JFK’s words:

   “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too”.

   Nothing worth doing is easy.

   Carve out the time. What could be more important than self awareness? It tells you what your needs are and when they are and are not being met. You deserve that time. Don’t let others interrupt it. If you need to build a quite place for yourself, do it. Such a process would be well worth the time and energy. If you go about building yourself a place to meditate (and I do not necessarily mean a physical structure), you meditate on the act of what it is for. It could be a chair in corner or a particular windowsill.

   Find that space.

   I wish you well and thank you very much for commenting. I love the ability to have dialog, such as this–in a forum as interesting as this.

   Jim
5. James Hart says:

   December 7, 2009 at 1:42 pm

   Molly Rae,

   Thank you for your great comment…and praise. I sure appreciate your thoughtful response.

   I had the fortune to live in Asia for a year. Originally from TX, this was a mind-blowing experience for me. It was like going to the antipodes, where everything is backwards. I lived in Taiwan, primarily. I also traveled through Thailand, Nepal, Hong Kong, India, and Indonesia.

   I went to Asia via a grant I received (a Fox Fellowship) to…get this…Study ritualistic mask dancing with village master teachers in Bali and India.

   That year changed my life, for the better. It enabled me to ask a lot of questions of myself and it very much served as a soul searching process. It was not any easy year. I spent most of that year in the Belly of the Whale. Change is hard and I was wrestling with it. Did I want to pursue the typical commercial path I was trained for at Yale Drama School? Or do I become an artistic monk of sorts–traveling the world and engaging and studying in acts of theatre? Both seemed like extremes. I ended up in the middle–back in the states, but implementing the knowledge and change I had found in Asia. I ended up building my first school with that–The International Theatre Academy Norway.

   In a way, I was forced to return from Asia, which I really, really did not want to do. Asia was a major place of personal discovery for me–one I loved very much…but life called.

   Part of what I found in the belly of that whale in Asia was that there were some very poisonous elements in my life. There were friends who were more like vampires than friends–real energy suckers and there were relationships and personal habits that did no good for me.

   Returning from Asia, I made a conscious decision to not let any poison exist in my life. So, I cleaned out my closet. I looked at all of my friendships and asked, “is this life-affirming or negative”? If the relationship was healthy and positive, I poured energy into it. If it was poisonous or rotten, I literally severed ties. I let go of about 4 friends upon one fateful day. And you know what? Once I cleared all of the garden’s end of year rubbish, I was able to make way for positive, life affirming possibilities and growth.

   So, to make a long comment summarized, I made a decision. The decision was to nurture the good and cut off the bad. You only have so many minutes and hours in a day. Why let any of it be consumed with that which drags you down?

   That process, as brutal as it sounds, enabled me to gain some phenomenal courage and confidence. I think those feelings came to me (in abundance), as I had made a choice to take care of myself.

   I hope that offered a little more to the dialog.

   By the way, loved your site.

   Jim