We are so good most of the time at looking back, and admitting, sometimes admiringly, that everything was for the best after all. That argument that shook us up, or losing our job, that break-up, eventually, all things connect, everything has a place. It feels so lovely to do this. We have a sense of peace and harmony in the world, that there is such a thing as destiny and that the universe/God/the Divine/etc really does have our back.
Yet, when something then goes ‘bad’ right here and now, in a present moment panic we throw this all out the window. SURELY, the ego tells us, this part doesn’t count. That was lovely back then BUT not now. Because the ego wants us to sit in the awfulness of it all, to panic and to lose our grip on reality, is its job. And I’m not sure about yours, but mine does a fantastic job of this. The spirals it can take me down, the gripping panic, of ‘yes yes yes but this is an absolute disaster, that was cute thinking before, all that universe nonsense, but now let’s look at us (my ego and me), we’re really in the shit right now’…
Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
The point being, it doesn’t really matter what belief system you embrace, it all ends up at the same place. That everything is completely okay, that something is simply happening that we can’t comprehend at this moment.
A wise ancient Christian mystic once said, “Stop telling God what you want, and instead listen to what God has to say to you”. You can take this many ways. The most important for me is to open up in the moment of panic to the always present stillness within us, surrender to natures flow and to listen, deeply and clearly, and know that eventually an answer, the truth of the situation will eventually reveal itself.
Written with love,
Jac x