Vulnerable

On Saturday I had the chance to spend a day in retreat with some 35 other Practitioners. It was a great day. I had a chance to reflect and be at peace.

The very first exercise involved taking 5 pieces of paper from a bag. Each piece of paper had a quality of being on it. I got:
Alert - Alert - Alert - Vulnerable - Vulnerable

I could have gotten 5 different qualities, but no, not I. No, I had to have the Universe tell me that I had to really be alert and vulnerable.

Interestingly, over the past few weeks I've been focusing on the idea of surrender. You know, where you surrender to the Divine flow, knowing that every experience and event is all supporting your evolution and unfoldment (if you'll just get the ego out of the way that is). Perhaps I was biased, but when I saw those two slips with Vulnerable on them the word 'surrender' jumped to mind.

More intrestingly, when Rev. Patrick Cameron was talking about qualities of being 5 or so years ago I'd encountered Vulnerable then as well. However, at that point it was a scary word. To me it meant being vulnerable to things happening to you.

In the ensuing years vulnerable has come to be an empowering word. When you know that there's a power for good in the universe and that you can use it the idea of vulnerability takes on a different meaning. But to move from that belief one needs to know that the Divine is in, through, and as everything. Once you have that faith of a good working for all in the Universe then vulnerable takes on a whole new meaning.

As I'm writing this I'm still struggling to capture, in writing, the right definition of vulnerable from this vantage. But I will say that my instinct is bringing me back to surrender. When I surrender to the Divine I'm making myself vulnerable. When I say "My life is God's life" I'm offering up my life to God. When I release all attachment to outcomes I am surrendering to whatever may come to pass.

Perhaps vulnerability is a form of surrender? But I think it's more than that...