In spite of many entries explaining what it really means to BE in the moment, I forgot to mention the obvious – the main reason why learning to BE Awake and Aware and of our own energy in any given moment is essential for the one interested in genuine spirituality.
We do not see for looking.
We do not SEE the many flags waved at us and, sure enough, we soon get another
opportunity to say, “What the …” for it is only by looking through our soul’s eyes –
from an elevated position – that we can create meaning out of our life’s landscape.
Messages – in the form of signs and symbols, names and thousands of words and
images – swirl around each and every one of us, all of the time, in our wakeful
moments and in our sleep.
Because these signs are not dramatic signs such as apparitions or strange
manifestations; because we, as a civilization, have lost the ability to recognize them,
they remain unnoticed.
And the first things to do in order to begin noticing such *soulful* messages in to stop multitasking and to stop the monkey chatter that creates static in our thoughts and, of course to be Awake and Aware enough to actually NOTICE that’s AROUND us – instead of only noticing what’s a few inches or meters ahead in our line of vision.
As a way to introduce the simple but pervasive nature of symbols in our day-to-day
lives, I will recount a moment shared by Jayne, a cyber friend of mine.
Weeks and weeks earlier, I had recommended to this young woman that she find a
copy of Elizabeth Haich’s book, “Initiation”. Unable to find a copy locally, she spotted
the book’s listing on Amazon.com and, as she said, she could have ordered the book
there and then. Because she was in the process of moving and could not be sure of
the delivery date, she didn’t.
Then, many weeks later while out to meet with a real estate agent to view what
would soon become her new house, Jayne arrived early and whiled the time away in
a café. Opposite this café, she spotted an old second-hand bookstore, so she
wandered across to have a look with, she said, “Elizabeth Haich’s book specifically
in mind”.
As Jayne walked through the door, she found herself in a small room divided down
the middle by a bookshelf. She looked at the books nearest her.
“Lo and behold, it was the spiritual section,” she said, “and I scanned the shelves for
the white spine of the cover I had seen on Amazon and BAM – literally in under one
minute after I had entered the shop, I was pulling a copy of “Initiation” from the
shelves.” Perhaps tongue in cheek, Jayne added, “I took that as a sign that we had
indeed found the right house in the right area etc.”
This lovely story indicates how Karma works: nothing *timely* can move forward or
be cracked open until we are ready to make a time and space for it. We can only do
that by being aware of the small and deceptively innocuous moments that present themselves under our feet.
If we blink or blank out a second too long, we’ve missed out.
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