Tag: perception

Abuela, Marita and theBaby Gopher

Early last week, I was listening to a friend describe how she had watched a cougar catch a baby gopher.  What she observed, she recounted, did not strike her as predation – the strong perpetrating upon the weak – but as the flow of the life force itself.  This is not the usual perception, and it gave me food for thought.  The child’s story below (also for adults) is the outcome of the pondering.  I share it with you; it is my take on the incident described by my friend.  Perhaps you will have your own take and can write your own story.  

Abuela, Marita, and the Baby Gopher

The old woman sat quietly on the round, weathered, moss-covered rock beside the path.  Her eyes were half closed, and her face wore a look of deep content as she raised it to absorb the rays of the late afternoon sun.  The path ran through a thicket of luxuriously full pine trees which adorned the thicket with their dark green needles and fresh aroma.  Quaking aspen, their long trunks covered with black-striped white bark, punctuated the thicket with their flaming yellow crowns.   The woman was waiting expectantly.  The child would be there any moment now. She breathed in the calm of the forest as she waited.  Footsteps were audible long before the child gave voice. 

“Abuelita, Abuelita,” her granddaughter’s voice called out, as the fleet-footed seven-year-old rounded the bend in the path. 

 “I am here, Marita,” the grandmother responded. “I was waiting for you.”  

“Abuelita,” the child cried out, racing into her grandmother’s welcoming arms.  “Abuelita, I saw a bobcat.” 

“How wonderful!” responded the woman.  “You saw him, and he did not harm you.  That is a good sign.”  

“But Abuelita,” protested Marita, “he had a dead baby gopher in his mouth.  He was going to eat it.”  

“Why do you think that was?” asked her grandmother. 

“I think the bobcat was hungry,” asserted Marita.  “He was hungry, so he killed a baby gopher.  But the baby gopher had not done anything wrong.  Why did it have to die?” 

“What do you think?” again queried Abuelita. 

Marita thought for a moment.  “I guess,” she finally offered, “that if the bobcat did not eat the baby gopher, he would go hungry and he would die.” 

“Probably,” agreed the grandmother, “if the bobcat did not eat, he would die.” 

“But why does someone have to die?” demanded Marita.  “If we die, we aren’t alive anymore.” 

Abuelita looked at Marita.  “You are wearing a beautiful jacket,” she commented. 

“Thank you, Abuelita.”  Marita looked proudly at her favorite jacket. It was made of a soft, sky-blue denim cloth, and lined in flannel. “But I wanted to know why either the baby gopher or the bobcat had to die.” 

“Take off your jacket, Marita,” instructed Abuelita.  

Puzzled, Marita complied. 

“Now turn it inside out.” 

Marita put her hands deep into the sleeves of the jacket and pulled them out until only the flannel was showing.  The flannel was pretty, too, checkered with bright red and navy. 

“Look,” pointed out Abuelita.  “Does your jacket look the same now, or is it different?” 

“Of course, it’s different,” declared Marita.  “It’s designed to be that way. It’s a reversible jacket.”  

“Did the beautiful blue side go away?” Abuelita asked. 

“Yes, replied Marita.  “But it’s not really gone, it’s just inside and you can’t see it anymore.   What does my jacket have to do with a bobcat or a baby gopher?”   

“Look around you, Marita.  Look at all the beautiful, wonderful life around you.  For example, look at the pine tree beside you.  Where did it come from?”  

“From a seed in a pinecone, of course,” answered Marita. 

“What will happen to the pine tree one day?”   

Marita thought for a moment.  “One day it will die, and turn into a log, and then into the dirt on the ground,” she said. 

“Where did the pine tree go?” asked Abuelita. 

Marita didn’t answer. 

“It is like your jacket,” explained Abuelita.  “On the one side, there is beautiful, wonderful life, and the pine tree is alive here.  When you turned your jacket inside out, you couldn’t see the beautiful blue anymore.  But it was still there.  On the other side of being alive here is another side of being alive, just as beautiful.  Because we don’t see it, we call it death and think it is not alive.  But it is alive, even if we cannot see it.” 

“Oh,” murmured Marita. 

“Most people think that dying is the end.  But it is just turning the jacket inside out.  There really is no death, only life.  Do you understand?”    

“Kind of,” Marita hesitated. “It is like my jacket.  I like to wear it blue side out, but I could wear it the other way, too.” 

“Good!”  exclaimed Abuelita. “Do you feel better about the baby gopher now?” 

“Yes, agreed Marita, “but are you going to die, too?” 

“One day that will happen, Marita,” averred her grandmother, “but not soon.  And when I do go to life’s other side, I will still love you.  And then one day you will meet me again.”  

Marita gave Abuelita a big hug.

Why this particular story?  There are many stories to explain death to children.  However, this story is about more than death, or our perception of it.  It shows also how strong is the connection between the two sides of the coin of life, and how ephemeral can be the veil between the two.  Perhaps it is time we learn to access that unseen realm, and from it gain the strength, motivation, and knowledge we need to restore the life-sapping imbalances surrounding us on Earth, on this side of the veil.

Peace, Diane

Two Worlds and Energy: Manifesting the Positive

“Focus on the positive,” my friend tells me.  “Envision the results you want, not the problems you have getting there.  Completely accept where you are, and you might move ahead.”   I had been discussing some of my frustrations – something I might not do at work, but which I like to be able to do with friends.  Stomping on frustrations and burying them does not make them go away.   On the other hand, complaining does not make them go away, either.  My friend was not telling me something I did not know already, but something I am habitually too busy to work with.

The advice my friend was giving me is certainly not new advice.  It sounds easier to do than it is, though, including for me.  Focusing on results instead of issues is something with which I have difficulty, even though I understand the instructions.   How can I focus on a solution if I haven’t understood the problem and dealt with what’s holding my solution back?   How can I bring anything about if I haven’t first removed what’s in the way?

Although it seems logical to identify and remove obstacles before paying a similar attention to creating positive results in the vacated space, that reasonable stance is in fact a trap, keeping me – and others – repeatedly focused on obstacles.   Those obstacles seem to obediently keep popping up when one is focused on them, much as in the legend of Sisyphus, who had to forever roll a stone up a hill.

Our minds are creative, even if we believe that there is not an ounce of creativity in us.  They will unfailingly create that which we focus upon.  Often that focus is inadvertent, including the imbedded stories we run repeatedly beneath the level of our consciousness.  Focus can also be purposeful, such as contemplation by choice, as when we are doing a math problem or painting a picture.  Or, focus can be habitual.  We may know what we do, but withdraw our thinking mind from our action, as in riding a bicycle, brushing our teeth, or reacting to a stimulus.  This focus, subconscious, purposeful or habitual, is what draws to us and creates either a desired outcome or a roadblock to that outcome or, sometimes, even a nightmare.

The solution to achieving a goal, be it a personal goal such as a new job, or a more overarching goal, such as bringing healing to the Earth, is theoretically quite simple: focus purposeful, subconscious and habitual attention on the goal to be achieved.  Avoid being distracted by attention- diverting thought-entities with the message of “You can’t”, “It won’t work”, “It can’t happen,” or any other thought or action contrary to steady focus on the goal.  The challenge comes in actually focusing the attention by choice, especially the powerful subconscious and habitual processes.

There is a wealth of information in books, on the Internet, and in various webinars, seminars and presentations on how to identify subconscious thoughts and habitual reactions.  Psychiatrists delve into the past in the hopes of uncovering the particularly powerful occurrence that gave us our negative thoughts, resentful and angry feelings, or stubborn resistance to change;  therapists work with people to help them overcome their fears and anxieties and visions of what might happen in the future.   To some extent, these can be quite helpful.  However, once these techniques and processes are exhausted, there remains what perhaps was being avoided in the first place: what is going on now.  What we focused on in the past or fear in the future have a limited influence on our ability to create because they are nonexistent.  Yesterday has passed away into memory, and tomorrow is not yet born.  Only what is now really exists.  If we are to focus on a result, it must be now, in the present.  We must see, feel, taste, smell, hear and believe the existence of our goal in this very moment.

For most of us, that seems impossible, like believing lies or inhabiting illusions.  Its basis lies in the essential oneness of everything, the connections between all that exists.   We live surrounded at every moment by an invisible energy (an ‘ether’, to use a very old word), directly inaccessible via our five material senses.  Some of us can perceive this energy via non-material senses; others cannot.  Whether or not a given individual can perceive it, this energy is very real.  It surrounds us, sustains us, connects us, and of it is formed the material world, including our material bodies.  This energy exists independently of the concept of time, which is a concept formed in materiality, and by which humans, who can grasp the concept, bind themselves.  Because this energy, of which we are composed, is independent of time, it contains the past and the future, melded into an infinite now.  It is past, present and future, wrapped in one.  It contains all that was, all that is, and all that will be.   Because we are composed of this energy, we, too, when we can identify with it, are able to move in time.  Most of us do not identify to that extent; a few, who prefer to remain unnoticed, do.  It is in this way that we can perceive our goals, sense them as if they were already here, in our concept of time, and focus our attention upon them in the present moment.

I understand the concepts and the explanations.  I can recognize the feelings in music, dance and nature.   I have yet to develop skill in bringing into material manifestation – actually doing – what I think I understand and feel.  I cannot tell anyone HOW to do that about which I write or which I feel in song and movement.  I am still figuring that out.  Rather, I think I am still growing into it, which is not a figuring out, but a process over time.  In an infinite world, I am skillful now; in our material world, I still need patience.  Patience can be hard when one has been traveling for a while. 

I wish for us all, especially me, the ability to perceive myself as whole, and the ability to draw to myself what is needed and desired.  I wish for us all the ability to heal ourselves, each other and the Earth.

Peace, Diane