Maintain inner stability at all times. Place yourself under house arrest by keeping yourself to a certain standard of inner control. Stay grounded and centered even while you are pulled in a direction you no longer wish to go in. Stay connected to your spirit, the part of you that is often neglected and yet which is you. With inner control of yourself, the way forward may be more measured, contained, and bearable, all the things that make progress in a new direction possible, for to say you are going to do something is one thing, but to actually do it is another. Action takes discipline and commitment, and that’s also how to keep your inner house in order and yourself on your path of heart, with intent.
Stay contained within the self. No matter what happens outside of you, in your own world or in the greater world, maintain your own center. Chaos does not deserve your attention nor can it be controlled. The only control you can exert is within the self. Hold onto the certainty of the self as autonomous. Hold onto the certainty of the power of the self to bear any tension and be the calm eye in the center of the storm. Stay focused on your ultimate goal. And what is that? To evolve, of course! Remind yourself often that this is life’s true challenge, to evolve with awareness and to do it every day in some way!
I cannot have what I envision… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
I dream of a small house. I design it with a certain style in mind. I go to the lumber yard and pick out the wood I want for the exterior. I want the wooden panels to be laid vertically. I see the house in my mind’s eye. It’s so perfect. After leaving my design and exact instructions for laying the boards, I leave the construction to others.
Just as I had visualized the house, I now visualize a giant golden goose egg. I set out to attain this egg. I see it in the distance, large and glowing, but I never reach it. I’m disappointed.
I return to the construction site. There sits my new house, but I see immediately that the exterior has not been done to my specifications; the boards have all been laid horizontally rather than vertically. At first I’m angry; it’s not what I wanted. Why didn’t they do what I asked? But then I see that the house is a much better design than the one I had envisioned. With the exterior boards laid horizontally the house has a palatial, expanded look, a more open look. Even the wood is different from the wood I had chosen; it’s lighter and has more intricate lines and patterns. I decide that the house is actually much better than the one I had planned. Now I really like it!
It suddenly dawns on me that the search for the golden goose egg offered a similar process. I was not going to be allowed to have the golden egg of my vision! I went on a wild goose chase, but in the end I received something much better!
As my dream points out, sometimes our ideas of what should be are not right for us. They may, in fact, be limiting and containing rather than advancing us in new directions. Sure, the idea of attainment of a golden goose egg implies a great spiritual achievement, but sometimes we just have to acquiesce to the energy of what is.
As my new house implies, if we allow ourselves to expand and change we allow something else to take over and lead us, perhaps achieving that golden goose egg in a different, unplanned way. This, I believe, is how the universe brings us what we really need. In learning to let go of control we naturally learn to accept what comes to greet us in our daily lives. We can struggle all we want to make things happen, but often the energy of the world gives us something else, an alternative that might just be the best thing for us. In our disappointments we might actually find the golden goose egg, just in a different form.
I receive the golden goose egg, just in an unexpected form… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
The truth is that we aren’t really in control of anything, and if we can accept this and trust the energy of nature and the universe, we might find ourselves in a much better place in the long run. We might find that we are being guided to where we need to go, or to what we must face or receive next in our search for wholeness.
Can we accept the guidance of the universe and let go of our need to plan and control? It’s really the only way to truly change.
And so, I gladly step into my new house, constructed by the energy of change, offering new and different horizons. Yes, there’s a golden goose egg in here too. I just have to see it for what it really is!
