Messages come from sources that we might call God, Spirit, the Universe (“The Big U”) or whatever term you use. The trick is to pay attention so you notice the message, and then figure out what it means because The Big U often talks in symbols.
Take animals, for example. The occasional exotic animal shows up and we wonder, “Where did that come from?” We might notice a common animal in an unusual situation and comment, “Now that was weird.” Or a common animal (like your pet cat) might be trying to get your attention and/or behaving differently than usual. Let me offer a couple of examples.
On the drive home from work one day I saw several armadillo foraging on the side of the road. Armadillo’s lesson is protection and deciding what I want in my life and what I want to exclude. When threatened, armadillo curls into a ball so the armor plating on its back protects its soft and vulnerable belly. Taking armadillo’s message, I drew a circle to represent the circle of my life. Inside the circle I wrote the things I welcome into my life: family, friends, prosperity, good fortune, etc. Outside the circle I wrote a list of things that are not welcome in my life: poverty, unemployment, etc. This exercise helped me delineate the things I invite into my life and the things I want to exclude.
On another occasion three black snakes appeared in our yard. Snakes represent change; shedding the skin of the old, which may be painful. Three days later I was downsized from my job. Painful? You bet! But the message was that I’d outgrown that skin (that job).
Bees are industrious little critters. They multi-task as they buzz from plant to plant and gather pollen, which they take back to the hive. When my job went away, bees showed up in abundance, sending the message that I needed to network and gather information from many sources as I looked for my next opportunity.
Most of the time we’re so focused on the routines of our lives that we don’t notice what’s going on around us. We don’t see the hawk at the top of the tree in our back yard. The frog in the driveway is an annoyance, not a cosmic message from The Big U. When the neighbor’s dog barks all night and keeps us awake, we don’t look up “dog symbology” on the Internet to see what lesson it might be imparting.
Messages come to us from many sources, and in many guises. We have to be open to seeing them, recognizing that there is a message, and then interpreting the meaning.
Take animals, for example. The occasional exotic animal shows up and we wonder, “Where did that come from?” We might notice a common animal in an unusual situation and comment, “Now that was weird.” Or a common animal (like your pet cat) might be trying to get your attention and/or behaving differently than usual. Let me offer a couple of examples.
On the drive home from work one day I saw several armadillo foraging on the side of the road. Armadillo’s lesson is protection and deciding what I want in my life and what I want to exclude. When threatened, armadillo curls into a ball so the armor plating on its back protects its soft and vulnerable belly. Taking armadillo’s message, I drew a circle to represent the circle of my life. Inside the circle I wrote the things I welcome into my life: family, friends, prosperity, good fortune, etc. Outside the circle I wrote a list of things that are not welcome in my life: poverty, unemployment, etc. This exercise helped me delineate the things I invite into my life and the things I want to exclude.
On another occasion three black snakes appeared in our yard. Snakes represent change; shedding the skin of the old, which may be painful. Three days later I was downsized from my job. Painful? You bet! But the message was that I’d outgrown that skin (that job).
Bees are industrious little critters. They multi-task as they buzz from plant to plant and gather pollen, which they take back to the hive. When my job went away, bees showed up in abundance, sending the message that I needed to network and gather information from many sources as I looked for my next opportunity.
Most of the time we’re so focused on the routines of our lives that we don’t notice what’s going on around us. We don’t see the hawk at the top of the tree in our back yard. The frog in the driveway is an annoyance, not a cosmic message from The Big U. When the neighbor’s dog barks all night and keeps us awake, we don’t look up “dog symbology” on the Internet to see what lesson it might be imparting.
Messages come to us from many sources, and in many guises. We have to be open to seeing them, recognizing that there is a message, and then interpreting the meaning.
No comments:
Post a Comment