I hear it again. “It is what it is.” I think of a mirror. You hold it up in front of your face and look at your reflection. You are only looking at the light reflecting through a slab of glass, bouncing off a thin layer of silver and hitting your eyes. If the glass is warped, what you see will be warped. If there’s something wrong with the silver surface, what you see will be warped. It all depends on everything around you, doesn’t it? We may aim for a pure reflection of ourselves and our situations. We may want to see everything clearly, but I don’t think we ever accomplish it fully. We’re too influenced by the dirt of the past, the warped memories and cracked pain.
There are so many lessons for me these days I can hardly keep up. So I mentally step back and look for the bigger picture. I watch for the patterns; words, billboards, song lyrics, books, links, websites, anything and everything is on my radar. Then I hear it: “it is what it is.” I don’t think too much about it, although I do think it’s a good thought. Hours later I hear it again. Later that night I hear it yet again. I’m paying attention. Over the week I’ve heard it probably 30 times. Yes, I’ve heard it before, of course, but maybe once or twice, not 30 times in a short time. Maybe everybody’s going through exactly what I’m going through, so we’re all feeling the need to say it: it is what it is. But I don’t think so. I think it’s a message for me. So then, I need to make my own meaning out of it, because that’s all any of us can ever do - make our OWN sense out of the events in our lives. Nobody can tell us what it is for us - that’s just not how I know it works.
It is what it is. The Middle Way. No judgment. Acceptance. Release. Letting go. No exaggeration or dirt or warp. Just the ‘is.’ Will the Missouri River ruin our Bismarck home? Will the flow wash away the island? Will the basement flood? Will there be mold? How much can we collect from our flood insurance? When? Did we get everything out that we wanted to get out? There are so many questions that cannot be answered. They just can’t. There’s no way we can know any of it right now. It’s all unwritten. Kind of like all of life right now. We’re in unchartered territory. Nobody knows anything much for sure. We just take another step and see where we are, and decide how we will act today. It is what it is. Not what it is not. Or what we hope it is, or will be, or could be. It just IS. I’ll sit with my current lesson, because it’s a big one - it’s come up BIG for me to see more easily. Thank you, Universe - I’m breathing through the fear, the worry, the frustration of just not-knowing. I like being in control. I admit it. I like being able to see everything for a long way when I’m driving. That’s why I love living here in North Dakota. You can almost see from Moorhead all the way to Beach, and I’m kind of not even kidding. But that’s no longer possible. We’ve floated into the new territory of the unknown, the land of the IS. I know it’s the only real place there really is - this present moment - the clear, unadulterated reality of neutrality, but still.... but still.