Living Life as a Question

We are living in a time when so much seems so unpredictable that there is a sense of impending chaos everywhere, whether in politics, climate change, economics, or social justice. It can create a sense of helplessness. 

In the past we used to feel that we could figure things out. That is, we could linearly address issues, sort them out, and develop a logical plan. That required a certain way of thinking, and it did produce somewhat predictable results.

Now we find that the logic of our world has become more and more suspect. The rise of strongmen in politics, for example, has become more popular. Why? Because they promise to fix it all for us.

Religion has been a comfort in the past as people felt that a higher power had a plan, even though it might not be apparent. We were told to just have faith — that some powerful outside force would eventually right it all.

At the same time there has been the emerging human potential movement which views us as expressions of the Divine. We have learned to engage with the higher power that exists within, to co-create and demonstrate through this alliance and to acknowledge this holy relationship in our daily lives. 

As we view ourselves in this way, we begin to realize that we do create our own life and have more power than we thought. 

You might say there are small building blocks around us every day, but that for the most part, we fail to notice them because we cannot believe that we had anything to do with the outcome. When there are opposing desires in the world, or the time for something desired takes a very long to happen, we might even loose faith in the process. 

Yet recognizing that you have been more instrumental in an outcome than you thought, and making that part of your belief system, slowly makes you aware of your true power.   For example, if you have wanted something to occur in your life, particularly something that has no apparent opposing forces, you might notice when it actually shows up.

A common observation for many is to treat these events as “coincidences,” and to take no credit at all for their occurrences. However, as small things appear for you that you have wanted — if you begin to see the pattern, it starts to build a sense of empowerment. 

The “lag time” between the desire and the manifestation is where we can easily become disconnected.  Because the pattern is not readily identified, it can seem that we have not had anything to do with an event’s occurrence.

Here is an example of a simple event that happened yesterday. For the longest time, well over a year, I have noticed that the Italian Cypress trees in our small garden have big dead splotches appearing on them.  I had wanted to get a sample to a lab and find out what is slowly killing the trees. Yet, I put it off as something I would eventually do.

Recently, while at a friend’s house, I was having a coffee and saw that he had a work crew tending to a garden and plants. I was told one of the men was an arborist. I mentioned the Cypress tree plight to the arborist, and he came over in that afternoon to gather a sample from my tree and take it to the lab.  

At face value, this event might just have appeared as something nice that would be helpful in my life. Yet at another level, it had been exactly what I had wanted — a professional opinion. Again, there was no sense of urgency and I did not directly call.  So, did I have anything to do with the arborist appearing? Did I participate in the creation of this event? 

Some would call this coincidence and discount any connection as nonsense. Yet, if you take the time to trace your desire for numerous small events to happen, and then notice when they do, you will begin to see a pattern. You will begin to see people you had wanted to see, and experience “lucky breaks” that you had needed, etc. 

What will be there to confuse the observation is lag time. As lag time increases, there is the sense when an event finally does happen it simply is a coincidence. But is it? I think not. The unrecognizable elements of a larger reality will begin to emerge. This can give us a sense of who we, and create a continuing magic and joy in life.   – Sanderson Sims, July 2019