Flow

In our household we have a lot of breakfast-time conversations about health and Spirit.

The old Celtic people of the British Isles (like the Hebrew people) believed a day started at sundown — so the night and its dreams are seen as part of the preparation for the day to come, processing the experiences of the day past into useful material for what lies ahead. A bit like composting the scraps of past meal preparation into good fodder for growing future food. 

It certainly works like that for us. We wake up full of ideas to take us on to the next stage in our life pilgrimage, and breakfast time is when they get shared and discussed.

So it came about that this morning our Hebe made the point that the essential criterion of health is flow. Ping! That was like a lightbulb moment for me, connecting a variety of disparate things I've often considered in the past. She is so right! Flow is what characterises health in any system you care to consider — human physiology, human psychology, spirituality, ecology, finance, politics — any system.

One of my favourite sayings of all time, from Toinette Lippe's wonderful book Nothing Left Over, is "Problems arise where things accumulate." True without exception. As, according to Jesus, God said to the man who hoarded up more and more stuff into bigger and bigger barns: "Thou fool."

The heath of the human body is utterly dependent on flow — the vascular system, the lymph system, the endocrine system, the lumen of the gut, the excretory function of the kidneys and bladder, the exchange of nutrients and waste across spaces between vessels and tissues — all of it, all of it.

Earlier this year a previously undetected organ of the body was discovered — the interstitium. Again, vitally, its role is the promotion and maintenance of flow. 

When flow is blocked, health breaks down.

But you can see this in society too: our modern society is grievously labouring under the ambition of the wealthy to dam resources, hoping to control, acquire and divert into their own lives the good things of the earth. It doesn't work like that, though. As the Buddhists say, all people are selfish but there is foolish or wise selfishness. Foolish selfish people try to grab and keep good things for themselves alone: under this system society breaks down, and they find they have sawn off the branch they were sitting on. Wise selfish people know that by sharing and distributing the good things of life, the society that supports them is maintained and strengthened. Flow enhances life.

It's the same with currency. In our family, we say that you have to create a vacuum for prosperity to flow into! So even though our income is apparently low, we don't worry about scrimping and saving because we know the universe holds more than enough for our needs.

Life flows. That's why minimalism is so potent — you let stuff flow out liberally, let it go. Don't worry about inflow, there's always plenty of that — oh my goodness, is there not!!

In our homes, health is dependent on flow. It's important to open the curtains, open the windows, to let the sunlight and air in, preventing stagnation. It promotes wellbeing and harmony to limit, organise and arrange furniture and other possessions to allow easy handling, let you find things, let the family move comfortably around each other in the space: that's what the roots of feng shui actually are.

And in relationships, flow is essential: give and take, breathing space and connection, blessing toxic people on their way, letting things develop but also letting them leave.

This is why trees are so holy and wonderful — they manage flow and so promote health. They manage the movement of water through the landscape, protecting against both drought and flood. They manage the flow of water between the air and the earth, keeping us cool on the hottest day.

And flow is of the essence of spiritual work, as the Holy Spirit like a fountain wells up within us to eternal life.