I can still feel the coolness of the incredibly translucent teal waters of the Ionian Sea. The feeling is so tangible, it’s almost as if I could look down in this exact moment and see seabed covered in in beautiful rocks. In the lingering space that follows time away from the regular hustle of life, life and it’s complexities seem a little simpler. As clear as looking through that pristine water.
A few years ago, a lesson came back around that change my perspective of life. I likely heard it several times in different ways throughout life, and I likely learn nuances of it for the rest of my life. I must have been ready to contemplate it’s the wisdom when I heard it this last time. The wisdom that each of us walk through this life with unconscious ingrained ways of moving through the world. In Sanskrit, the word saṁskāra gives language to this human experience. Nicolai Bachman explains, “Every time we register an event (receive a sensory input or produce a thought, word or deed), a subtle impression is recorded in our memory. The more intense the event or the more it’s repeated, the stronger the impression… The impression forms a deep imprint, called a saṁskāra, which becomes part of who we are and influences our actions.” So often, they remain outside of our awareness though their impacts are palatable in the way we move and breath. They way we speak and listen. The way we experience love and fear.
This journey of life is a little bit like the stones resting on the floor of the sea. Each bit of stone was at some point part of something bigger until it breaks away from something like the side of a grand cliff, and then falls into the sea. Yet with each passing day, the edges of the fallen rock become smoother and rounder transforming it’s ragged and rough exterior. This is a process that only time, friction with other stones, and water can create.
Each of us have gathered these imprints through our life. Learning how to be in this world, respond to this world, and at times, that has led each of us to have sharp edges and sometimes even points. We too can dull our pointy bits. For us, it’s a blend of time, practice, compassion (self too!), awareness, being in relationship and community. There may be some friction along the way, and yet this journey each of us are on, can soften and refine us, smooth our edges. And so maybe this life is simpler than we think. Maybe we are meant to learn to soften. Over and over again.