Each day our heart gives us pure and simple guidance to live our lives in fulfillment and peace. It is our human nature to either ignore this guidance altogether, listen to it and then decide that our mind knows better, or else take the risk to listen and follow it. It is such a mystery as to why we choose to ignore this flow of wisdom within us, and yet we all do. Perhaps if we truly knew that this wisdom comes from a very loving place and is meant to bless our lives we would listen more often and carefully. This truth was brought home to me a few days ago.
We have an elderly golden retriever named Miss Molly. She is sweet in every way and everyone loves her so much. Since I feed and take care of her, she is most loyal to me. Miss Molly has a paw that gives her problems from time to time. Our vet has looked at it often and prescribed an anti-inflammatory pill for when it swells and is painful. With one or two days of taking the pill, the swelling goes down and she feels better. This tablet tastes good to most dogs, however Miss Molly doesn’t like it. Getting her to swallow the pill is quite a feat. I have even disguised the pill in her favorite food, and come back to see the food gone and the pill remaining. The other day I walked out on the deck and pet her a while and then told her I was giving her the pill and why. I then opened her mouth and placed the pill in the back of her mouth. I then stroked her throat and encouraged her to swallow. Miss Molly is a good actress and made every pretense of swallowing the pill. I thanked her and when I turned to leave I heard the faint click of a pill dropping onto the deck. We tried it again with Miss Molly putting on her best act of swallowing and then when I turned to leave – you guessed it. We went through the entire routine a third time, only to have the same outcome. Miss Molly is so dear that it would be hard to get angry at her. So the fourth try I was petting her and told her, “Why would I give you something that is not good for you? I totally and completely love you. Taking this pill will stop the pain and reduce the swelling. It’s helped you every time.” I think she understood, because she swallowed the pill and gave a little wiggle.
As I was walking away I felt that I am not that much different from Miss Molly. The One that loves me the most is constantly giving me wisdom and guidance in my heart, ways to grow and open and fulfill my destiny on earth. Just like Miss Molly, I take in the wisdom for a little bit, even pretend to follow the guidance, and then I spit out the pill of guidance as my mind takes over once again. But when I do finally listen, there is so much joy and fulfillment.
Several months ago I had a very positive experience of listening to my heart. Barry and I were going to Germany to do our workshops and we had to travel through London. This was one month after the terrorist scare and the London airport was checking every single piece of carry-on luggage for liquids and gels. Our tickets had been booked six months before this scare and we only had one hour to get from one terminal to the other. Normally it would be no problem, but with the tightened security it was a big problem. If we missed our connection, there were no more flights out that day to Hamburg and the thought of spending an entire day and night at Heathrow Airport was not appealing, as well as missing the first day of the workshop.
My friend, who is a flight attendant, gave me an accurate picture of what to expect when we landed in London. Her advice to us was, “When you get off the plane run as fast as you can to the bus that takes you to the other terminal. If you can beat the heavy traffic of people, you have a chance.” Barry and I contemplated that run for an hour before the plane landed. We knew it was about a quarter mile and we knew we had to be fast.
The plane landed and we began to run. So did every other passenger. They probably had the same information we had. Soon we merged with another planeload of people that just came in from Los Angeles. There were hundreds of people running as fast as they could. It was nearly a stampede. Running along I passed a woman in an airline uniform holding a sign that only had two names on it. Our names were not on the sign. As I passed I distinctly heard in my heart, “Stop! Go and talk to that woman.”
I yelled to Barry, “I feel we need to stop and talk to that woman.” Barry said that he felt the same way. She was on the phone and we had to wait for five minutes for her to get off. In that time, the long corridor had emptied. The buses were full and the line for the next set of buses was very long. Stopping to ask for help from this airline employee had forfeited our chance of getting on a bus.
Finally the woman got off the phone and we asked her if we were going the right way to make our connection to Hamburg. It was obvious we were on the right path, yet we needed to follow our inner prompting and be with this woman. She silently looked at us for what seemed like an eternity, as if deciding our fate in this situation. Then she smiled and said, “I probably shouldn’t do this, but I’m here to escort these two first class passengers to the Hamburg gate. Why don’t you just come with us.” She escorted us by private car past a three hour wait of buses and long lines. Using her badge, she marched us right to the gate within a matter of minutes. We were so grateful to her. We were also so grateful to have listened to our inner guidance.
Is there a prompting that keeps coming to you? Perhaps to change your job, to be more honest with your partner, to attend a certain class or workshop, apologize to someone, reach out to your parents, trust your child, change your diet, or spend more quality time with yourself? This guidance comes to bless your life. Sometimes it’s hard to switch gears and listen, like when we were running down the corridor in London, but listening will change the frantic running to a peaceful walk. Perhaps it’s time to actually “swallow” that guidance and let it do its healing work in you life. Remember it comes from a very loving place -- your own heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment