Be the Hub, not the Wheel.

While the wheel is spinning, spinning, spinning

I'll not dream of winning fortune or fame

While the wheel is turning, turning, turning

I'll be yearning, yearning

For love's precious flame...

I've got a very busy few weeks on my plate at the moment, and I am aspiring to "be the hub, not the wheel." To me, this means that instead of leaving my emotional state at the mercy of the situations I find myself in, I am learning to allow space and distance between what I feel and what I truly am.

It sounds simple, but it takes a lot of practice.

Joseph Campbell and Eckhart Tolle have explained this concept more eloquently than I, but the image of a person in the center of a wheel instead of endlessly riding high or sinking low in it's cycle is incredibly appealing to me. Here is Campbell's beautiful explanation from the excellent book and television series,The Power of Myth:

Moyers: What happens when you follow you bliss?

Campbell: You come to bliss. In the Middle Ages, a favourite image that occurs in many, many contexts is the wheel of fortune. There’s the hub of the wheel, and there is the revolving rim of the wheel. For example, if you are attached to the rim of the wheel of fortune, you will be either above, going down, or at the bottom, coming up. But if you are at the hub, you are in the same place all the time. That is the sense of the marriage vow ~ I take you in health or sickness, in wealth or poverty: going up or going down. But I take you as my centre, and you are my bliss, not the wealth that you might bring me, not the social prestige, but you. That is following your bliss.

This passage echoes in my mind constantly- because it seems like such a balanced way to approach life. What could be better than that- especially in the midst of a stressful moment?