Finding Fertility at the Shores of Your Internal Edge Zone
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
— Rumi
Rumi paints an eloquent picture of the search for love. Yet, one could replace the word “love” with any intrinsic desire and the statement would be just as true and powerful.
Your task is not to seek for happiness
Your task is not to seek for contentment
Your task is not to seek for health
Your task is not to seek for …..
The process of seeking is synonymous with self-awareness. When one seeks internally, they deploy self-awareness in search of pieces or aspects of Self. It is when those pieces are found that the EXCITING work begins. In the second half of his statement, “… seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it,” Rumi suggests that in order to find love we must overcome our internal barriers. For if we do not seek, find, and overcome those barriers love will escape us.
In permaculture, the “edge zone” is a space of abundant productivity. Bill Mollison, the founder of permaculture, suggests the “edge zone” can be 3-7 times more productive than either of the parent ecosystems. Thus, making it a fertile space of high value.
Just as we can replace the word “love” in Rumi’s quote and it remains a true and powerful statement, we can turn Mollison’s logic inward and it has the same affect. I am suggesting that our “internal edge zone” is a space to be revered. An ecosystem unto its own. A space where we “find all the barriers” we’ve built up and against ourselves. Then, and only then, can we dismantle the blockages of our Internal Landscape.
And yet, there is one word from Rumi’s quote which we have not dissected thus far, merely.
It’s a word that makes the message accessible, accomplishable, even simple… Those of us who have done a bit of self-discovery know that this is not easy work. Yet there is a distinction to be made between easy and simple. It is not easy to face head on the aspects of ourselves which are holding us back. Let alone acknowledge and accept the fact that we created them (or allowed them to integrate) in the first place. Indeed, this is a separate subject all together - one that requires honesty, integrity, vulnerability, and grit.
However, we can simplify the process. When we understand that seeking is in fact an intrinsic process of identification, we can spend time along the fertile banks of our inner landscape. Here, we can identify the aspects of Self which keep us from experiencing that which we desire. Here, the process becomes simplified. A new perspective reveals itself.
Every internal edge zone has a “sweet spot.” One where we push ourselves just outside our comfort zone but not so far past that we become paralyzed in the abyss of the unknown. For there is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone… It may not be easy, but it can be simple.
When seeking ceases to be esoteric it can invoke a quite tangible process of internal identification and modification. It can be a fertile space within ourselves, 3-7 times more productive than any singular aspect of Self. We merely need to rehearse the process of pattern identification. Then, the real work of designing our internal landscape begins.
