美食祈祷与恋爱意大利文化 《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 60 (135):泪水是生命的一部分

《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 60 (135):泪水是生命的一部分  

I almost started to cry right then
but quickly realized I didn't need to. Tears are part of this bodily life
and the place where these o souls were meeting that night in India had nothing to do with the body. The o people who needed to talk to each other up there on the roof were not even people anymore. They wouldn't even be talking. They weren't even ex-spouses
not an obstinate midwesterner and a high-strung Yankee
not a guy in his forties and a woman in her thirties
not o limited people who had argued for years about sex and money and furniture—none of this was relevant. For the purposes of this meeting
at the level of this reunion
they were just o cool blue souls who already understood everything. Un-bound by their bodies
unbound by the plex history of their past relationship
they came together above this roof (above me
even) in infinite wisdom. Still in meditation
I watched these o cool blue souls circle each other
merge
divide again and regard each other's per-fection and similarity. They knew everything. They knew everything long ago and they will al-ways know everything. They didn't need to five each other; they were born fiving each other. The lesson they were teaching me in their beautiful turning was
"Stay out of this
Liz. Your part of this relationship is over. Let us work things out from now on. You go on with your life."
Much later I opened my eyes
and I knew it was over. Not just my marriage and not just my divorce
but all the unfinished bleak hollow sadness of it . . . it was over. I could feel that I was free. Let me be clear—it's not that I would never again think about my ex-husband
or never again have any emotions attached to the memory of him. It's just that this ritual on the rooftop had finally given me a place where I could house those thoughts and feelings whenever they would arise in the future—and they will always arise. But when they do show up again
I can just send them back here
back to this rooftop of memory
back to the care of those o cool blue souls who already and always understand everything.
This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most plicated feelings of joy or trauma
so that we don't have to haul those feelings around with us forever
weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn't have the specific ritual you're craving
then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising
fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous plumber/poet. If you bring the right earnestness to your homemade ceremony
God will provide the grace. And that is why we need God.
这正是仪式的目的。人类之所以举行心灵仪式，是为了给复杂的喜悦或痛苦感觉提供一个安全的休憩地，让我们无须永远带着这些沉重的感觉跑来跑去。我们每个人都需要这种妥善的仪式场所。我始终相信，你的文化或传统若没有自己渴求的特定仪式，那么你绝对可以创造自己制定的仪式，以一个宽厚的水管工诗人亲自想出的机智办法，修补你本身故障的情绪系统。你若认真看待自己亲手制作的仪式，就会蒙神恩宠。这正是我们需要神的理由。
So I stood up and did a handstand on my Guru's roof
to celebrate the notion of liberation. I felt the dusty tiles under my hands. I felt my own strength and balance. I felt the easy night breeze on the palms of my bare feet. This kind of thing—a spontaneous handstand—isn't something a disembodied cool blue soul can do
but a human being can do it. We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands. Eat
Pray
Love