Pit

I described pit for Caroling. But once started, pit took on life. The pit of the site means that everything emanates from here. When I'm depressed, I'm in the pits or get the pits or it is the pits. This time is usually amazingly fertile for me. I let go of my expectations and everything I think I should, could, or would be doing if I were better, had more time, more support, whatever I seem to be wanting, in the sense of desire and in the sense of not having. All this mental baggage gets stripped off increasingly as the pit deepens and I descend deeper into it. Getting bare naked as Bob Pirsig says. Down there in the dark there is nothing I can do to improve my mental state or position in any way. Once I calm down enough to accept that, I can accept relief at the lightened load. That leads to greater relaxation and realization of letting go. Some call this state surrender, but to me that implies there is a greater force involved and perhaps it is somewhat involuntary.

My pit involves the acknowledgement of voluntary release. Can be experimental and investigative. What if I don't do the dishes or take my vitamins? What if I do, but don't write down my dream? At best, acceptance of limits leads to choices. Hmm, in the time before lunch, what is the best use of that time? What is best use? What is the use? When descending into the pit, all anguished, lost, frustrated, angry, and conflicted, the question what is the use means everything. Nothing seems to be of use. When everything has fallen out, the pit seems bottomless and I let go into free fall, I begin to be weightless, unaffected by gravity. In that state, what is the use becomes a question of using something that is available to accomplish a end, an end I'm free to choose. Since I can't go any lower that I know of, I have nothing to lose that I know of, so why not?

Then there is pit as in seed, but that metaphor is misleading.

Back to Caroling.