The week was short and was full of new opportunities to grow professionally and personally. I've been speaking a good deal with my mentor as of late, and we recently discussed the topic of "social collateral" in passing as we spoke of taking life action or, as it is, stepping out in "faith" into or onto the unknown of life...kinda. The topic came up as we discussed the topic of unilateral loving of your enemy or disconnected loved ones and how the process is a combination of all three areas of discussion.
The first is the very notion of faith. For the purpose of this Friday's short writing piece allow me to define it as.. "the belief that there is something there, in a person, a place or in taking an action, that you have previous experience of or experience (internally or externally) with that is an unseen platform onto which you are reaching for with yourself (person, life, resources) to step on to or grasp a hold of in the unknown." I realize that was a lot to process, but if you recall back in the 90's the worldwide fascination with hidden 3-D posters and the images that could only be seen if you looked long enough and let your gaze go slightly out of focus. If you looked too hard you can only see what was obvious to you in the various objects or colors in the picture. Those shapes and objects in and of themselves were something to look at, but it's not what you're looking to see! They are obvious things we immediately focus on because you can see them; they are defined, and if you only look at the picture in passing, you will not see what is in it.
Being able to see the picture within the picture takes a little bit of patience and actual practice of letting go of your expected outcome. It requires you do something your 'person' is not used to doing--letting go of your control of things and letting your focus on them blur just enough so your mind can start to open the door to what else is there to see. You have to be patient. You have to keep looking just long enough to see it, and you have to let go or loose your focus on the obvious for what will become the emergent evident picture in the background. This is true in our real life.
Some people give up too soon because it's difficult to do somethings when your inexperienced at it. Being able to see these images essentially is directly connected to your ability to let go of the obvious, or control of what you can see and control for what you can't see yet but may see it if you can let yourself. You letting the focus of your eyes blur just a little so the image that you are supposed to see can be seen. It takes some people a few tries before they get it, and the people that do persist and keep reaching while letting go of their control of the familiar while reaching out to what is really the unfamiliar....those are the people that the image comes out for and makes itself apparent. Once you see the hidden image you wonder it took so long, and you didn't see it sooner. The evidence was there. Other people saw it. Heck, the fact that you know it's there really required a minimal amount of faith from you, but it required some!! It required just about the amount of a mustard seed of faith and belief. I read somewhere that it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. Just that small amount of faith in yourself and also in the thing, activity or person you are laboring over or suffering through can make the difference in you achieving something greater than that epitaph of your life or being defeated by it. We all have mountains in our lives that need to be moved or climbed. No one can do it for you. You are solely responsible to make the journey up, through, around or under that mountain.
The mountain(s) in our life can come from any number of sources. It can be our inability to let go of what we know and are familiar with because those things are safe. You are not required to believe or have faith in something you are familiar with. It's when you leave the familiar or 'let go' and determine that there is no way up until you take the action that likely needs to happen for you. Lots of times you don't do it because you lack enough faith or the practice of it to move forward and onto newer and better things that should happen for you in life. You might be too focused on the details of the obvious picture of your life because you've been hurt and don't want to let those details go because in them there is the deceptive kinda of 'familiarity' that lulls you into non-action; don't do it because you will miss the very image, life changing event, or person that is right there in front of you waiting to change your very experience of life. Open your eyes (They look but cannot see...they hear but they cannot listen...they search but cannot find) and join them and be apart of that new picture.
Faith or having enough of it in yourself is something we have to develop in ourselves through trial and error.....TO BE CONTINUED...
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