Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Okay, so amazing how this universe works!! I posted this morning on my journey away from Christianity and the need to constantly grow and change and not feel like I have it all figured out. I get home this evening and open my e-mail and this is what my Daily OM said:

Living in an information age, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the constant influx of scientific studies, breaking news, and even spiritual revelations that fill our bookshelves, radio waves, and in-boxes. No sooner have we decided what to eat or how to think about the universe than a new study or book comes out confounding our well-researched opinion. After a while, we may be tempted to dismiss or ignore new information in the interest of stabilizing our point of view, and this is understandable. Rather than closing down, we might try instead to remain open by allowing our intuition to guide us.

For example, contradictory studies concerning foods that are good for you and foods that are bad for you are plentiful. At a certain point, though, we can feel for ourselves whether coffee or tomatoes are good for us or not. The answer is different for each individual, and this is something that a scientific study can’t quite account for. All we can do is take in the information and process it through our own systems of understanding. In the end, only we can decide what information, ideas, and concepts we will integrate. Remaining open allows us to continually change and shift by checking in with ourselves as we learn new information. It keeps us flexible and alert, and while it can feel a bit like being thrown off balance all the time, this openness is essential to the process of growth and expansion.

Perhaps the key is realizing that we are not going to finally get to some stable place of having it all figured out. Throughout our lives we will go through the processes of opening to new information, integrating it, and stabilizing our worldview. No sooner will we have reached some kind of stability than it will be time to open again to new information, which is inherently destabilizing. If we see ourselves as surfers riding the incoming waves of information and inspiration, always open and willing to attune ourselves to the next shift, we will see how blessed we are to have this opportunity to play on the waves and, most of all, to enjoy the ride.

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So true that intuition is sooooo important. We have all the answers inside us- we just have to learn to listen. Like the book The Four Agreements explains, we have all been "domesticated" and it's not easy to shut those other voices off; all those things that we have been taught as truth that were only someone elses truth and not our own.

3 comments:

kelli said...

I just finished reading _Eat Pray Love_ by Elizabeth Gilbert. I think you'd really like it.

Unknown said...

Always a joy to read about your journey! Thanks for sharing with all of us!
xxx
ooo

Ren Allen said...

Cool OM...very true.

That whole "domesticated" thing is something we see happening around us all the time. I heard a Dad reprimanding his son at work yesterday. "How old are you?" he asks the boy (what a stupid question to begin with)
"I'm eleven" he dutifully answers.
"Then act like it. You don't want me telling your Mom"

His offence?

Sitting down and playing around on the floor at a department store. wow.
Nobody else was being bothered. I felt so sad that this child will quickly learn how to fit in and ignore his own sense of joy and wonder. Domesticated. Logical. Sensible. A vegetable. (stealing a bit from Supertramp)::)