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The Wise Old OWLL
During one of my recent sessions with a client, she began sharing something that was happening in her life. It required her to make a huge decision about the direction her life was headed. When she finished, I told her that I knew she would make the right choice. This was based on our friendship, and her integrity and character.
There is really no such thing as a wrong choice as long as we learn from it. All choices are valuable and can teach us something about ourselves. This is an expression of the perfection of the world we live in and the fact that no matter where life takes us we can always change our direction by making a new choice. Sometimes it just takes us awhile to see that the original choice we made is not working and it is time to make a change.
For some reason we just do not like to let go.
Then I mentioned to my client that all she needed to do was to be open, watch, listen and learn from all her choices and to pay attention to what was occurring around her in the moment. When you are this present with each moment, you will be guided in making choices that will allow you to flow with life. No, that does not mean that your life will be all peaches and cream but what it does mean is that your life can thrive, and when difficult times arise--and they will--you will know you have options. You can come back to peace and meet life head on with passion and zest.
Once I said this, she said "OWL!" and repeated what I had said, be Open, Watch, Listen and Learn. Then she said you can use that, if you want. We both laughed at the acronym and the symbolism of the wise old owl. It is always amazing to me how things come into our lives. I could have easily overlooked these words and their symbolism. This is the very thing I was telling her about life, being in the moment, and paying attention.
GOD, Buddha, the universe --whatever label you choose-- will bring us our choices boldly and brightly if we are only open to hearing, seeing and feeling the truth. Unfortunately, for most of us (me included), it often takes a great deal of suffering before we decide ((OR: are ready)) to see the truth. In the meantime we live in a life or world that we have created out of illusion.
Have you ever liked someone and been expecting them to call and they don’t? Did you begin to feel worried that this person did not like you anymore or maybe something terrible had happened to them? You worry and worry, maybe even call again and leave a frantic message. Then they call like nothing is wrong, because there isn’t. And it had nothing to do with them not liking you; they just got busy and couldn’t call you back right away. Now how much time did you spend worry over nothing? Your mind created a story about what it thought the reason was for them not calling, this was an illusion. Your mind may be doing this to you all the time. Who’s in control anyway, you or your mind?
If we can stay in the moment, then we can make another choice when our mind begins to create such a story. This then lets us become more productive, happy and less attached to outcome and more connected to now. Think about how much more you would have to offer the world living from this place. You can start today by remembering the wise old OWLL (Observe, Watch, Listen, Learn) and putting these principles into practice.
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Commons License.
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