THE STONE IN THE SHOE: SURRENDER, HUMILITY, AND THE CALL TO PRESENCE

In life and relationships, challenges often appear like a small stone in your shoe—persistent, uncomfortable, and impossible to ignore. These challenges are not obstacles to remove but profound invitations to growth, surrender, and deeper love.

The paradox of the spiritual path is to reconcile the opposites: to live and act in the world with sincerity and depth while simultaneously being rooted in an eternal, unconditional awareness. This dance between action and surrender is the essence of our journey.

Often, the ego resists surrender, clutching tightly to a mere 1% of control, identity, or belief. But it’s precisely in this small, resistant space where the deepest transformation occurs. The stone in the shoe becomes the teacher, urging us to release the false narratives of the mind. It is not about seeking to fix the discomfort but embracing it, allowing the heart to break—not down, but open.

This breaking open reveals a deeper vulnerability, tenderness, and ultimately, love. The mind sees this breaking as dangerous, but the soul knows it is necessary. Through this surrender, humility is born, transforming the ego’s resistance into profound presence.

Relationships, in particular, are potent arenas for this work. The beauty of connection often brings with it moments of challenge to the ego—the stone in the shoe. Yet these moments are not obstacles but gifts, opportunities to surrender deeper and meet each other with authenticity and courage.

To live from this place of openness requires immense courage, a willingness to die to old patterns and beliefs. But in this death lies the birth of something extraordinary: true love, presence, and freedom. The stone in the shoe is not your enemy. It is your greatest teacher.

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There comes a time
When the only choice left
Is the deepest acceptance of yourself
Exactly as you are
What a beautiful homecoming.

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If you want to live a deeper truth
Something has to come undone
It’s not more knowledge you need
It’s an undoing of the false layers
Of what you have taken for reality
And hidden behind
In other words
It’s destructive before its creative.

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The dreamspell hypnotizes us
Mind is lured into compliance
And holds the dream as real
Collective hypnotism 
Creates the construct
That appears as reality
But is a nothing more
Than a movie.

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Sometimes I am down
In the depths of the ocean
Watching the waves
As they endlessly roll along

Other times I am up
In the vast sky
Peering down
With compassionate gaze
At the human circus

Mostly I am just here
Living day to day
Body in the temporal
Essence in the eternal.

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Sit quietly
And watch the wave of desire
As it rises, peaks and falls away
In that watching without moving
You have mastered presence and equanimity.

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The flower opens
And releases its fragrance
Because that is its nature
The same is true of us
When we stop fighting
With our experience
And arguing with ourselves.

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I arrived at a place
In which only love
Was seen to be real

An all pervading goodness
Came upon me
Which felt unshakeable
Even in the midst
Of the turbulence
Of the world.

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Live with your heart wide open
And if it’s not wide open
See what stands in the way
And attend to it

At first the vulnerability hurts
Because everything is rushing
To get to the openness
But after some time
That vulnerability
Becomes a simple naturalness.

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Let the luminosity of your being
Radiate all the way
Into your doing
Carry the light of love
Into all experience
No matter how dark
It may appear.

Thanks for reading:

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