You are standing in a kitchen, any kitchen, facing a friend, a lover, or even a family member. The person in front of you slaps you on your right cheek. The slap is hard and it stings. Your head, by force of the blow, is turned to the left. Though your eyes are watering, you see the dining room; the chairs, the table, the large wooden wall clock. You pull your head slowly back to center, and see the person who hit you.
You look in their eyes and realize that they might not even know that slapping you was inappropriate, or that it hurt you. You look into those eyes, at the face that holds them, and even down to the body of the person across from you. You inhale once, then twice; feeling your breath go in, and then out. You nod with a new kind of knowing. Then, finally, you turn your head and view the other side of the kitchen. Tucked next to the stove, the refrigerator, and the cabinet where you keep the popcorn popper is a hallway. The hallway leads toward the entrance of your home, and you follow your turned cheek and head out the door. The evening is lovely, and it is time for a walk.
The blows, the inequities, the hurts and the harms can come without warning, from even the most safest of places. They sting, every single one, and they push awareness toward hatred, judgment, frustration, anger and a myriad of other emotions. It takes a lot to pull your head back and to turn the other cheek.
The process of turning involves moving through center, through the breath and back to the moment. It requires acceptance (I am not speaking of toleration, forgiveness or condoning) of the harm, as well as the agent of harm. Only when the breath has led to acceptance can the cheek begin to really turn toward a new reality. Only when the anger of being harmed has been embraced and comforted, can the chin move to the left. When the turn happens the world changes. The perpetrator still stands, but she or he is simply part of you; a neighbor on a single strand in the web of connectedness. Your face still stings, but the feeling is wrapped up in air blowing from a slow moving ceiling fan; the sensations of raw pain and indoor breeze cannot be separated. Truth shifts as the foot follows the turning eyes, and you move into another way of being.
"But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." - Matthew 5:39
