I was told that the vines were choking the trees. After two long days of work, and enough brush to fill the Grand Canyon, I realized that maybe there was something choking me. I liberated the trees who could then breathe and feel themselves fully without the weight of that which bound them. Two weeks later, just about the time my blisters healed, my help was needed pulling up vines in another person’s yard. More digging to do.
I was curious to know what it all meant, the synchronicity of these two events. Before going to work in both places, I had to focus on what needed to be cleared. In the clearing, I begin to see the root of it all. What’s underneath my striving? What stray vine is wrapped around my heart? I’m looking for answers and a pearl of great price.
The young rabbi shares a truth about the value of things.* At first blush, it sounds like things outside of me. But it’s a call inward, which is where the heart lives anyway. When our outward desires outpace our ability to love ourselves fully, we become choked, and cannot see the problem at the root of all things. True wealth trades only with the heart’s currency, and the exchange rate is free. The greatest treasures always are.
I’m searching for me. Loving myself in the midst of my pain and confusion is the most valuable gift I could receive, arriving with the sweetest declaration: The treasure is you.
