This morning, I heard the cheerful call of the chickadee, and the “pretty, pretty, pretty” song of the cardinal. It was the sound of spring. Ten minutes later, I heard the sound of hail hitting the roof. It was the sound of winter.
It’s warm today; it’s 29 degrees. It’s warm today because last week, at this time, it was minus 13 degrees.
I see the tips of my daffodils. Snow lies on the ground a few inches thick.
It is relative isn’t it? This works in our favor, and it works against us. Which way it goes depends on our state of awareness and what we do about what we notice.
The fact that extremes can be used to cloud our awareness that something is going on that isn’t right, makes it a very useful tool for those that intend to confuse. A simple example may be the raising of gas prices and then lowering them. We don’t pay much attention to the fact that they do not return to the price they were before; we adjusted to a higher price.
It’s how the frog gets boiled in the water. You know the recipe; cold water, add frogs, turn heat up slowly, and they never notice they are being cooked. In this way, it obviously works against us.
It works in our favor when we recognize that although it may look like nothing is happening, as in “spring will never get here,” below the surface of events, and in the world of nature, growth is always happening.
It reminds me of this quote by Dan Millman, “When we feel stuck, going nowhere, even starting to slip backward… we may actually be backing up to get a running start.”
Don’t you love the picture he creates with these words? We can see in our mind’s eye a runner digging in, gathering all her energy and focus, and blasting forward into the race.
On the other hand, sometimes when we feel stuck, we are stuck. Like a car stuck in mud, spinning its wheels. (I am back into weather, the end of winter, brings mud.)
So if we are stuck how do we get out? There is the wood under the tire route. What tools do we already have that can prop up the spin and ease us out of the rut. Then there is the call for help route. A tow truck, a friend with a chain, all symbols of hooking up with someone not in the rut and having their resources give us a tug.
Here’s the thing. Feeling warm when it’s been colder, finding ways out of stuck is a good thing. It helps move us forward into our life. However, if it is based purely on positive thinking, looking for the silver lining, at some point it doesn’t work. One day we are just too tired, or too disgusted, or too irritated to find one dang good thing about anything at all.
Not to knock positive thinking, because we surely enjoy a positive person more than the constant naysayer, but in the end, all that positive thinking does is cover something up and find a good way to look at it.
Wait; stay positive, I have a solution! Pack your bags, and move out of the pinging back and forth within the human condition, and move into the realm of the Absolute. Everything within the context of human will be relative. However, everything in the Absolute is – well absolute – and begins with perfection.
Why does it have to begin with perfection? Because, if not perfection, than we are in the human condition again of needing to get to perfection, which, by the way, cannot be humanly achieved.
Instead, when we begin with the idea that the ultimate Intelligence has already created perfection, then our role is simply to shift our perception to that idea. We roll back the cloud of thinking that hides that fact, and receive the warmth of the sun to the extent we have shifted away from the idea of trying to get, and into the idea of already being.
This may look like positive thinking, but it feels completely different. The results are different too. Instead of applying a fresh coat of paint to an aging house, we build a new home on an unshakable foundation.
Michelangelo said it all in one simple phrase, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” See the perfection of what already is, let go of what isn’t, and we set ourselves free.
BECA LEWIS coaches, teaches, writes blogs and books, plays with art, and is addicted to reading. She lives in Ohio with her husband and has kids and grandkids scattered across the country.
