Me (Alexandra): Talk about spilling my guts!
Universe: We beg your pardon?
Me: Spilling my guts. it means unloading everything that’s been weighing on your heart. Not literally, you understand, metaphorically.
U: Guts, heart… No, dear one, we cannot say that we do understand. Perhaps some further explanation?
Me: Okay. I had my first appointment with a psychotherapist today. For a solid hour I told her stuff about my life. I felt a little dizzy by the end, to tell you the truth. But she’s a great listener and I’m glad I found her.
U: Then We, too, are glad. Listening is a great gift with which humans are endowed.
Me: It is. It needs practice, though. I’ve been participating the last week in an online Summit about the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) a.k.a. Tapping. As a result, I realize that I could do with paying more attention to my body’s messages. When it tells me that it’s tired and needs sleep, for example, I usually ignore it. No listening at all. In fact I consciously resist going to bed.
Like most troubling habits, that goes back to childhood, when I was forced to go to bed at an absurdly early hour because it was, supposedly, “good” for me. It was certainly good for inducing feelings of isolation, alone in my narrow single bed, listening to the other kids still playing outside my bedroom prison.
U: Dear one, may We gently remind you that everything you have endured, and will endure, in your present manifestation, is of your own design? You came to this planet, which you call Earth and We call Earth School, to pass through various trials and use them to strengthen your already magnificent self.
Me: Rising to the challenge, you mean? There’s that expression again!
U: Precisely. And while humans don’t have the magic powers they dream of, you do have mystic powers. Intuition, for instance.
Me: Good example! I’ve noticed my intuition strengthening since I stopped swallowing sugar this year. I eat fruit and occasionally put a drop of organic honey into my tea or tisane, but that’s it. Only two months, and my “sweet tooth” has greatly abated.
Anyway, three days ago, I hosted a Buddhist study on Zoom. At first no one showed up. I sat patiently, and found myself thinking about a particular lady, although why I didn’t know. She had never attended the study before. The next moment, she showed up onscreen! We had a lovely chat together before the meeting began. It felt like a gift.
U: That is because it was a gift.
Me: Wonderful! And speaking of gifts, I just read the marvellously inspiring and uplifting essay by Sarah Wider, Professor Emerita of English and Women’s Studies at Colgate University in the USA that you sent me by way of my Internet search. I’m going to share it here so as many people as possible can read it.
And I’ll finish with this question that Professor Wider poses, a question that elicits listening, seeing, self-reflection and action.
What is this moment calling us to hear? To see? To hold? To do?
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
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