Waking to the Brightness of A New Day, Dear Guides!
There is a high fog in our valley this morning. The sun is penetrating through and shining all around, but the tops of local ridges have a blanket of fog around them.
My Bewilderment Book Club had its first virtual meeting last night. I am pleased with the number of people who enrolled, and I enjoyed the turnout we had for last night’s call.
The Club is a twelve-week journey through Martha Beck’s most recent book – a work of fiction entitled Diana, Herself: An Allegory of Awakening. Although it’s a fantasy, Martha also describes it as “…the most practical self-help book I’ve ever written.”
The theme we discussed last night, from the opening section of the book, was “letting your ‘wrong life’ fall apart.” Dear Reader, what do you think that would mean?
Often in our lives, beginning when we are young, we are given information, and ideas of right vs. wrong, so that we learn thoughts about what is “supposed to” be, and what we are “supposed to” be.
With these socialized thoughts we carry, we often suffer – either because we don’t measure up, and we’re afraid we’re unworthy and unlovable; or, we’re constantly grasping to conform to what we believe we’re “supposed to” be.
Then, there’s that part of our brains – what I’ve referred to as my lizard brain, and, in the book, Diana calls “the Furies” – who shout constant negative, damning, dooming thoughts at us, and repeat any nasty, hurtful thing anyone else has ever said to us or about us. These Furies scare us and make us doubt ourselves – so much so that we often remain miserable, or at least uncomfortable, in a “wrong life” – because the Furies have us convinced that we can’t handle, nor do we deserve, anything more.
The magic is that often it’s the cataclysmic event – the diagnosis, the break-up, the layoff – that makes us so tired, hurt, scared, and raw – that we dare to listen to the guidance that’s been available all along.
This guidance is a part of us, but also beyond us – it speaks through our heart, but also through the magical messages of the Universe. We need to reach a certain level of desperation to dare to listen.
There are other challenges, even when we reach this point: even when we’ve dared to listen. What does not happen immediately, is everything suddenly getting better. We don’t wake up the next morning to an offer for the perfect job, an introduction to our perfect mate, or sunshine and rainbows for the rest of our days.
No – we wake up to another round of the Furies, shouting all their old diatribe, but now adding how crazy and ridiculous we are, to have hope for anything different. Anything better.
So, here’s the thing – if we want today to be different and better than yesterday, it’s up to us to change…something. Anything.
When we’re listening, we’ll be guided toward that change. But, another challenge in this process is that we’re often given just one step at a time. We’re required to have faith. We’re asked to let go, and to step onto a bridge that we can’t see, except for that first step. Then, once we’re on that first step, a second step will be revealed. But, it requires us to trust. Which is why our desperation becomes the gift that encourages and motivates us to dare and persevere.
Diana, Herself is an allegory for Change in one’s life. The assignment to Club participants these next two weeks is to identify the negative patterns in their lives, and to allow those “wrong life” patterns to fall apart.
So, Dear One, here’s my Prompt for you:
Consider accepting this week’s Club assignment for yourself. Start by identifying the negative patterns that don’t serve or nourish you. Then, see if you can allow those “wrong life” patterns to just fall apart in your life.
You might also consider reading Diana, Herself for added context.
Additionally, consider joining our Bewilderment Book Club. The next call is in two weeks, July 6. If you are interested in joining our Club, contact me to see if there’s still room available.
Dear Guides – Thank You for offering me the Wisdom to let go and make room for Your Guidance toward something better!
Recent Comments