Dissolving the fear in our minds

Luke and his new toy

Luke is our big, long-haired German Shepherd. He is a goofy, loveable guy who makes the most of his life with 6 cats, none of whom want to play with him. He was born different…he didn’t even look like the other puppies in the litter, and by the time he was 6 weeks old, he couldn’t stand on his hind legs, but he was a sweet puppy both in looks and temperament. The breeder was a friend of ours, and offered him to us because he couldn’t be sold. We said yes. It was recommended that we get his hips x-rayed since hip problems can be an issue with shepherds. We didn’t do it.

I knew that if I heard from our vet that Luke had bad hips, I would never be able to get the image out of my mind, and what we imagine and fear, will start to manifest. We decided instead to accept him the way that he was, wiggly hips and all, and only do something medically if he was in pain, which he wasn’t. He will be 4 years old in May.

There is an idea, a belief system, operating in the world that we must prepare for disaster. That worry, fear, and massive amounts of information about every disease, disorder and disaster that could potentially befall us (or those that we love), will help avert those things from coming, and just the opposite is true. What we prepare for, we are making room for, in our lives.

Hyper-vigilance prevents us from being able to listen to the voice within, which is our greatest gift, our best friend. Whether you call that voice the “still small voice of God”, intuition, guidance, guardian angel or gut feeling, it really doesn’t matter, but what does matter is the knowing inside that we can trust ourselves. That if we tune into that “voice”, for direction, we will be guided toward the correct action, toward the lives that we want, instead of the lives that we fear. The Spirit never scares us into action. When I am in-tune with my inner guidance, and I do need to take action about some thing that could end up being a problem, I get a “nudge” that might feel like an unusual thought, and if I don’t listen, it gets more persistent (and this is a good thing), but it doesn’t lead by fear.

“The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds“. William James

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Listening “in”

taking the first step

The picture above is from my 2011 calendar which is a series of “openings”. I love the feeling it gives me of unknown opportunities behind the closed doors…especially when I am sitting, safely, at my desk looking at my calendar, busy with the life that I have chosen which seems to be working well, at the moment, just the way it is.

I bought this calendar to remind myself that this is what life is about…a series of openings, challenges, and opportunities that, when presented, don’t  necessarily feel bright and clear and welcoming…the path may look like these beautiful stairs in retrospect, but when I am about to make a move, do something new, leave the known because it is time, but I don’t see exactly where I am going, or what it is going to be like when I get there, the picture in my mind can be much more frightening.

Years ago, when I was in Divinity school, I remember hearing the term, “divine discontent”, to describe the feelings that can come up when we are being moved from the inside….moved to expand, grow, change and live a fuller life…when our old way of being has become too small and that is the only thing that we are sure of. But there always is a clear path, as tiny as it may seem,  and it comes in the form of that “knowing” inside. When I can calm down the fear and take a deep breath and listen, there is a something that points the way. It has been called many different things by many different people; intuition, “the still, small voice”, the muse, a guardian angel, Jesus, our higher power, the subconscious mind… I don’t believe that it matters what we call it or if we call it anything. What matters is that we recognize it, and that we trust it, over all outside opinion.

I didn’t notice, until I took the photograph this morning that at the top of this path, over the door was a bell….a call, even when not seen, to a deeper, richer life.

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