Lay Those Burdens Down

I am planning a BBQ Throw Down at Esoteric Gardens. The intention is to invite family and persons in my community to enjoy some good food and conversation. We plan to develop by then, a signature sauce and a flatbread that would reflect the essence of what we are trying to do — ‘healing people with food’. The condiments will be made from fresh herbs and spices grown right there in the garden and we are hoping that with every taste of the BBQ, persons will experience the energy healing vibrations of food.

One of the first things I plan to do is to produce a giant placard and put it next to the gate. On it, I would have lettered four simple words, ‘Lay Your Burdens Down’. I would be asking persons to do just that.

We allow ourselves to be too burdened by life’s problems. We take on our troubles, those of our children, our friends, and our neighbours, thinking that we can carry them all. All we end up doing is bearing a lot of pain and suffering, much of which is not our own. So when I ask persons to lay their burdens down, I wonder how many would comply? How many would look at the words and actually unpin their stresses and leave the bundle at the gate? I will assure them that they can pick them back up afterward if they chose to or leave them to be scooped up by Divine Forces and carried away like unwanted trash.

It is amazing the relief that would come about for that moment in time. It is the same sense of release felt during meditation where we concentrate on the now, leaving our past smouldering somewhere in the past and our future where it ought to be, in the future. Where I come from, our culture does not allow for persons to sit and meditate for a few minutes each day but I am betting on them understanding the phrase “Lay Your Burdens Down”. So I intend to start there, with something that is easy to wrap one’s head around. Their open invitation would be to place all burdens at the gate and accept the true healing that lies within.

Where do you go to lay down your burdens? What is your practice? How do you connect with the greater part of who you are?

If you do not, I invite you to find yourself a place. Create an imaginary boundary if you have to, and vow to yourself that every time you walk through the gate of your safe zone, you intend to lay your burdens at the entrance.

Do this as often as you can and I guarantee you that one day you will leave your quiet space, walk right past, forgetting to pick them back up.