Last night my husband I hosted two other couples for a Passover seder. In the traditional Jewish tradition, we spent the evening “reliving” the Israelites journey from slavery to freedom.
At our table, the theme of our discussions revolved around the passage through the Red Sea. The Hebrew name for Egypt, Mitzrayim, means “narrow place,” and has been said to symbolize a womb. As the Israelites leave Mitzrayim as slaves through the water of the Red Sea some say they are reborn as a free people and a nation on the other shore. The six of us spoke of our own narrow places in which we found ourselves now, or had found ourselves during the past year, and also if we felt we were in the womb ready to be reborn or born as a fuller, more expansive versions of ourselves. We discussed if we were gestating anything new to bring into the world that would expand our lives and our ability to express ourselves as well.
Jewish or not, most of us have something in our lives that keeps us constrained, unable to become our true self. (If you don’t, lucky you!) For each one of us at the seder table, some type of force in our lives, like money, health or lack of confidence, seemed to hold us back or make it difficult for us to express ourselves or to fulfill our purpose.
Yet, most of us also want to live more fully—and possibly show up more fully. Or we have something we are nurturing, wanting to bring into the world when the opportunity presents itself—the right moment. Every one of us at the seder table felt ourselves in the womb, growing, preparing…just about ready to break free, push out—despite fear—and to become something new or to bring something new into the world. We felt the labor pains, and the trepidation and excitement of becoming someone new or starting something new.
Again, this experience is fairly universal, I think, but I found it fairly amazing: six people all in the same basic place… none of us youngsters, either…showing up anew, creating new offerings.
For me, I’m birthing a new book again. Of course, that means “coming out” another time as an author of books about writing and publishing. I feel constrained by that category. I feel a strong push to move toward the books and the work that made me want to become an author in the first place. This is the spiritual and human potential work I began here on this blog and on this website. And when I can include both in my life, my life and my self will expand. I will feel expansive and my work will become more expansive.
This is my Mitzrayim and my movement through the Red Sea as I hope to be brought out and delivered on the other shore.
How about you? Do you have a personal Mitzrayim, a narrow place? And do you see yourself moving out of it to a new, more expansive way of being in the world?
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