Tag: acceptance
The Rowboat, the Motorboat, and the Helicopter… or, the Sailboat of Life
Have you ever considered if the universe is delivering exactly what you’re asking for but you’re not recognizing it? What if it is delivering exactly what you asked for, right now?
This isn’t about the “law of attraction”.
This is about …. What if the universe is delivering everything you want, or the way to get there, and you don’t accept it because it doesn’t look the way you expected?
I’ve been having a number of discussions lately about just this concept referencing the modern parable about the man who dies, ends up at the pearly gates, and asks St. Peter why he wasn’t saved. As it goes:
There is widespread flooding going on. A man dies after going all the way up to his roof during the rains, and he drowns. He ends up at the pearly gates and asks St. Peter, “Why, why wasn’t I saved? I asked over and over for help, and none came.”
St. Peter responds with, “You were sent help, you didn’t accept any of it. When the rains first started, we sent you a rowboat; but you turned it away. As the waters continued to rise, we sent you a motorboat, and you also turned it away. Finally, when you were on the roof, and there was one last chance to save you, you turned away the helicopter we sent. Each time you said that God would save you. My child, it was God who sent you the rowboat, the motorboat, and then the helicopter.”
There have been numerous times in my life when I’ve been waiting and looking for the rowboat, the motorboat, and even the helicopter …. and I missed the lovely sail boat sent my way.
I’ve been a student of life as long as I can remember. I’ve heard the concepts of “plan plans, not outcomes” and “pry your fingers off the steering wheel of life.” I haven’t really gotten it until just recently.
I found myself once again asking for direction to my path in life as well as support to a thriving life, including both health and financial. Within 24 to 36 hours I got my answer, yet it didn’t look like I expected. I wanted a few signs; I got them. I mean … I REALLY GOT SIGNS WHICH WERE VERY CLEAR as they were signs that are meaningful and distinct to me. ROTFL, I still was a bit questioning.
FINALLY …. click went the light and I now see the sailboat!
What I most love about all of this is that I have come to a place in life where I thought I was trusting as life unfolds, except it seems when it doesn’t look like I expected. If I’m kicking and screaming and upset, that is not living in the present, seeing and accepting the gifts which are being offered to me all along my path. This is now the graduate level course of life ….
Am willing to trust, am willing to live in faith …. even when things come to me in different ways than I thought? Can I have inner peace when I’m being challenged outside of my comfort zone? Can I trust when life is feeling unfamiliar? Will I allow myself the pleasures of trust, ease, and inner peace?
So, am I ready to see my sailboat? I’ve found I’m ready when I’m ready, no sooner.
Yep, not only am I ready for the sailboat, I am ready to let my dreams set sail. I am now on the sailboat life sent me …. feeling the wind and the mist from the waves as they embrace my body.
We must let go of the life we have planned,
so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
~ Joseph Campbell
Anyone else? Who’s ready and willing to come sailing with me?
Laurel Ley
Trinity Energy Progression Facilitator/Practitioner
Seeing the Miracles in Disappointment
Rue in bloom.
Sometimes in life – heck, a lot of times in life! – we get frustrated with the way things are going. We have it in our minds that life should be one way, and instead, life looks anything but that vision at our present moment in time. “What have I done wrong?” we wail at the Universe. “I’m a good person, why aren’t things working out like I expect them to?” If you’re like me, most of the times there is no answer. I’ll try to console myself with the sayings “Everything happens for reason,” and “Things happen in Divine timing,” but in truth I’m just frustrated and feeling forsaken and unloved.
I usually wind up turning the situation around, swallowing my disappointments and trying to ignore the hollowness and ache of unworthiness deep inside me until I can be grateful for what I do have. Typically, this involves a healthy dose of nature. Nothing turns my mood around faster than observing all of the miracles around me every day in the form of the plants, insects, and creatures roaming this Earth!
Those who know me know that I raise butterflies. It started out as a love for tabouli and a desire to make my own. I dutifully set out a few parsley plants and waited for them to grow. They did indeed grow. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed parsley! One day, I came out to find my parsley plants covered in caterpillars. At first, I wasn’t too happy with this outcome. But, after doing some research, I determined that the caterpillars were those of the Black Swallowtail butterfly and I felt honored to provide them with a source of food. From that point on, I kept parsley plants for the butterflies so that they could leave their eggs and start the cycle anew each year.
Each summer I would eagerly await the arrival of my butterflies and their eggs. I planted more plants they enjoyed such as rue, dill, and fennel in addition to the parsley, and filled my garden with rich nectar sources. When the baby caterpillars emerged, I would bring them inside and feed and care for them until they made their chrysalises. Those that emerged from the chrysalis during the season were released back into the world, and those that decided they wanted to wait until next year to see the world overwintered inside my house so as to protect them from predators and the cold weather.
This had been an annual cycle for me for several years until 2016. I waited and waited all summer long in 2016, but no caterpillars appeared. To say I was crushed is putting it mildly. I was heartbroken. The fact that several other people I knew found caterpillars when they hadn’t ever had any before seemed like salt in the wound. As pleased as I was for them, I felt my own lack of caterpillars keenly. One person asked me to “adopt” some almost full grown caterpillars late in the season that then overwintered with me. It helped to ease the ache, nevertheless I was still very sad over not having any of my own to raise and care for.
Fast forward to now, Spring 2017. In an unusual twist, I found five baby caterpillars on my rue recently. This is highly unusual since in years past I haven’t had caterpillars until the late summer. My heart was filled with joy! I hadn’t been forsaken after all! It seemed the Universe did still want me to take care of and protect these tiny members of the natural world. Once I’d come down from my euphoric state, it occurred to me that there must have been a reason that I hadn’t had any caterpillars to raise in 2016. Almost as soon as I had formed that thought, the answer came to me. In 2016 I’d been helping a friend through a really tough time, one that required lots of nurturing and support in addition to all of my normal hectic daily routines. With that realization, my whole perspective changed. I’m still sad that I didn’t have my own caterpillars to raise that year, but I’m grateful that I was given the time to focus on nurturing someone else who greatly needed it. Plus, I was still provided with some of my little ones to adopt at a stage in their lives when they wouldn’t require much from me. Truly, it was the best way the whole situation could have unfolded, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.
As a result of this little life lesson, the next time something doesn’t turn out the way I had hoped, I plan to stop and take a moment to thank the Universe for whatever else is in store for me in the future that might not have happened if I had gotten whatever it was that I had been hoping for. Because I’m sure that whatever it is will be just what is needed.
Colby Hall
Trinity Energy Progression Facilitator/Practitioner
My Pet Peeves
I am a dog person and have loved having dogs as pets since I was a child. They are always ready and waiting with wagging tails to be petted. I used to have a lot of peeves as pets, too, that were also always ready and waiting for me to pet them — anywhere, anytime! And they were an ever growing pack of peeves. I remember often saying: “That is one of my pet peeves.”
My peeves were there for me to pet in the car while I was driving. For example:
- Tailgaters when you’re going faster than the speed limit, or those really slow drivers in the fast lane;
- Turn signals on the car in front of you staying on FOREVER (or drivers who don’t use a turn signal at all);
- Litterers who throw trash from their car window as they drive.
My peeves were with me when I went to the movies and restaurants and shopping:
- Squashed cigarette butts outside of entry doors into a building (because no smoking allowed inside??);
- Parents bringing their pre-schoolers to R-rated movies (because they are too young to understand??);
- People repeatedly hitting the elevator button (to make the elevator arrive sooner??);
- Making a sucking noise with a straw to get that very last drop (or all those drops after the very last drop??);
- Drivers parking their cars across 2 parking spaces (for those needing more personal space for their beloved vehicle??);
- Wobbly tables at restaurants (to keep you moving until you leave??);
- Movie talkers, or super noisy eaters during a movie (food, friends, entertainment – what a great socializing opportunity??).
Of course, they lived with me at home, too:
- Coming home to a house smelling like trash that should have been taken out yesterday;
- A topless toothpaste tube now full of dried toothpaste;
- No extra roll of toilet paper in the bathroom;
- An empty carton in the refrigerator…
I’ll stop this particular list now as I do live by myself 🙂
As Trinity Energy Progression became more and more a part of my life, I began to ask myself what was I willing or able to do to actually stop these pesky peeves from being my constant companions. I could never see myself actually hurling an angry admonition into a movie theater audience for someone a few rows away to eat more quietly or to stop their endless talking. But that is exactly what I was doing in my head as I succumbed to the peeves’ demands to be petted without it having any effect on actually stopping their unwanted behavior.
Peeve petting was an instantaneous way to annoy myself without really trying by just looking around me. I rarely missed an opportunity to pick up stray peeves. There were so many of them that were just begging to be petted, ALL the time! Through my Trinity practice, I began to explore why I would ever want to annoy myself with this and why I continued to pick up even more peeves to pet. I realized how petting peeves could obsess me to the extent that they would become a primary focus and distraction, with me often sharing my thoughts about the annoying peeve with whomever was within earshot. I see the peeves as my ego’s pets; my ego loves this “petting.” My ego also loves “peeving” contests where “my peeve is better than yours” or having more peeves than someone else, as well as the superiority my ego feels by only petting the peeve rather than being the peeve.
Now, when I see a peeve looming in front of me or when someone comments that something is a pet peeve of theirs, my head fills with laughter at the thought of a peeve as my pet nipping at my heels and barking incessantly to get my attention so I will pet it. With the focus of Trinity Energy Progression on unconditional love and joy, I couldn’t help but see how my dogs as pets have always been “adorable bundles” (in various sizes) of unconditional love and joy. Although peeves come in many shapes and sizes as well, I see them all as rather “unadorable bundles” of judgment and negativity. I see petting them as expressions of this negativity and judgment by me as the peeve petter.
These days, I laugh at myself at even the idea of choosing to be a peeve petter instead of enjoying petting my unconditionally loving tail-wagging dog. Trinity Energy Progression has helped me remember to choose this simple joy instead of petting peeves. With a smile on my face, I am now going to pet my dog!
Sandi Newton
Trinity Energy Progression Facilitator/Practitioner
Have You Hit the Wall (of the Mind)?
I have to admit, I feel up against a wall. I have been rushing toward opening up and allowing myself to feel free flowing happiness, love, laughter, content, joy, bliss, sheer BEingness and then…WOMP. I found myself pressed against the wall. All those wondrous feelings, states of being, mind satisfying vibrations seem to be on the other side of the wall. I know they are all there. I feel so close…a breath, a hair, an instant away, but this darn block is preventing me from melting, joining, receiving, transforming to it.
I do not feel disappointed that it is not so. I feel confused. I look upon it as a dog cocking its head in puzzled confusion. I am engaged with this mystery in a sense of loving wonderment. I sense a strangeness or a weirdness as to why this is so. It feels like typing a password into the computer and nothing happens. So we type it in again expecting it allow us entrance, and then nope, nothing. Nothing changed. It may have been awhile since last tapping in. Is it possible we forgot? No, we wrote it down. Questions surface, did I change it? Did it expire? Is something wrong? I know I know this. What is going on? And there it is. It is the questioning of what is really going on and why is this so. The thinking part of the mind so at grip to this.
The softer side, emerges and says let it go, let it just be. Remove the force of the thought against it. Lay back and drift with it. Let go and allow it to just become one with us.
This translates to me as taking a step away and allowing it to come from the peripheral. I have been focusing too hard on the need, the desire, and willfulness to make it so. So it is time to step away from the wall for a moment to allow the necessary space. I allow the natural connection with the other side and to become one with it. That feels right. That feels so.
Meditation and energy work is such an important part of my day, my life and experience. It works so delicately and without confines. It reminds me that I do not have to direct or do anything in the how to make it so. Remembering and practicing this is all I need do. All is well with this.
Namaste, happiness and joy to all,
Dee Jones
Trinity Energy Progression Facilitator/Practitioner
D5 Creation