Anger on the Path

Not enough has been said about anger on the path. ON the path.

Anger doesn't mean that we're suddenly exiled from the path, though we wish exile upon ourselves because we just want the light to stop illuminating the shame that follows.

Thank you to those who have participated in this conversation privately, sending me long letters of wisdom and insight after the midnight hour.

It's an important issue in regards to being a woman, being a woman partner to a man, and in mothering.

All strategies and compensations aside, dangerous to talk about. Dangerous because truthful.

I can't go there yet out loud, but it's where I've been these past few days.

I know the underbelly of rage as a daughter. I know it as a wife. I know it as a woman. And now, I know it as a mother. The first three were bearable, survivable, just be a tough kid and a hard ass and a really, really nice girl, and life goes on.

But anger and mothering......is dismantling all that other coping. It wipes out every trick in my bag and leaves me high and dry.

There are teachings in ancient scripture that speak to anger on the path. It's just part of the journey for many of us. It's fine to engage in practices, to send loving-kindness toward it. But sometimes it's also important to name it for what it is, to bring it out of the shadows.

May these words bring medicine for the telling, for the beginning of a conversation. Anger on the spiritual path.