"There is a guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word. Why need you choose so painfully your place and occupation and associates and modes of action and of entertainment?... Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all who it floats...." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
This week the household dryer broke, which in a busy home with children, is not a small thing. While waiting for a repair person to rescue us, I decided to set up a rudimentary clothes line. I found an old 20 foot cord that would do, but it was a tangled mess. So I began the tedious work of untangling which gave me the time to once again reflect on human problems as tangles, and to recall the solution: never begin to tackle a knotted mess by trying to think which piece to move where. Rather the trick is to loosen the knots and twists. Loosen, Loosen Loosen.
With seemingly daily upheavals, the world and each of us as individuals continue to face the puzzles and tangles of complex beliefs and complex lives. Often in a life-puzzle, we have the pull of spiritual guidance, but we (sometimes unconsciously) ignore it in confusion. The idea of guidance is fundamental to human beings. It is a large component of learning and adaptation to new situations where we apply learning, knowledge and experience directly to work, relationship, health and wellness, finances, and various decisions of daily life. When we are younger, we turn to parents, or older siblings and relatives and then in school, teachers. In work, we may rely on supervisors or consultants; as patients, we may need specialists of one form of another. This need is part natural and part social/cultural structure. Yet there is an element here of something more fundamental--human intelligence--some recognition that there is an aspect to sorting out life that requires a source of knowledge beyond our own. It is an intuitive awareness that some actions in specific situations are more useful and productive than others, and that action in one direction, inevitably impacts other aspects of our life.
That gnawing sense of the "better way" is our own spiritual nature, tugging at us toward an inner guidance system we can term spiritual Guidance. While we may sometimes sense the opinions or experiences of other people as spiritual Guidance, it is our own inner response that opens and determines who and what we pay attention to and take seriously. Ultimately, the Guidance system resides within. Recognition and experience fine tunes that Guidance system over time. But, modern life is complex and quickly tangles in cross currents. Our actions impact others. There is the constant cross-fire of seeming opposing opinions and needs. Confusion in decisions, masks our fear of consequences. The way to spiritual Guidance is to loosen, not break, not struggle, certainly not tighten, the tied-up mess of relationships, opinions, emotions and yes, even consequences, that jam the flow of Intelligence and "lowly listening" to Guidance. The day the dryer stopped, when the cord's tangles were loosened, the knots simply fell apart. I had my clothesline. Oh, and the repairman expertly fixed the machine. (Susan Nettleton)