From Cindy.
Do we expect a particular outcome or are we finding that moving in the right direction is enough? An acquaintance posed that question to me the other day, and I had to stop and think about it. At first I saw nothing wrong with expecting a positive outcome, a finished product. I expect a healing when something presents itself to me.
Then, as I thought more about the question, I began to see the depth to it. If I work and work to get the expected outcome, then I am missing the journey, the sweet step by step growth Spiritward. I reasoned that I didn’t start kindergarten on day one and expect to be fully graduated that day. Now, I am not saying we are not perfect right now as children of the Perfect ONE. But I am saying that our demonstration of that perfection is an unfoldment of good and right ideas. As Mary Baker Eddy states, “Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. Science and Health, p 513.
If I am continually looking for what I expect to be the outcome, I may miss the shift in consciousness, the unfoldment of divine ideas. What I think should be the outcome, may be more a form of outlining than an unfolding and listening to God’s direction. The turning to God, Spirit, leads to the perfect unfoldment.
I love learning from working with horses. For instance, when trying to execute a sidepass (where the horse crosses its feet in the process of stepping sideways) on my horse, I knew I wanted a series of cross steps to the fence. My attempts were stiff and lackluster. I couldn’t seem to communicate correctly. I knew my mare knew how to step sideways, but my horse didn’t understand me. We were getting frustrated. I was focused on the outcome instead of the step by step unfoldment.
Then the thought came to just break down the communication to one small movement at a time. I asked her to tip her nose and recognized/praised her try. I hadn’t noticed her try before! It was there. I shifted slightly and touched her gently with my leg, and she moved sideways. Just a shift and the rest of the movement opened up. We sidepassed easily after that. And all it took was the smallest signal to free us to make the whole movement.
What a lesson that has been! Am I wrapped up in what I think should be, or, am I grateful for the try, the shift in the right direction? When working towards healing, do I recognize the shift, the small opening of consciousness to the Truth? Am I grateful for the try?
Or, am I holding to a specific method/way of things working out? And, perhaps not seeing it? Maybe I need to find another truth to use, or a better article to read, or call the practitioner again? If I’m wandering around (or maybe even wallowing) looking for things outside instead of SEEING the Truth unfolding right there, then I’m not accomplishing the true healing, the recognition of the unfolding opening to the perfect idea.
This concept goes right along with Elisha’s lesson to the widow woman in debt (see II Kings 4:2). He asked her what she had in her house and turned her thought from focusing on what was sure to be the outcome of her sons becoming servants. What was in her house, or consciousness, that was of value, that was the truth? She recognized Elisha as a man of God….that was a start. She shifted then. She shut the door on her old expectations and fears, and saw the man of God as intelligent. She obeyed his commands turned her focus away from the outcome she feared, lost her frustration and anger, and was humbly obedient in finding vessels for her oil. Then she poured out. As she found one thing for which to be grateful, more and more good became evident until she understood that was her substance. Then she was able to sell that substance, or make it real in thought. A shift, a break, in the mesmeric pull of a physical outcome, made the recognition of good unfoldment evident. Her family’s needs were amply met.
After a protracted divorce, my sense of family relations was not where I thought it should be I expected to see family members equally, to be a part of lifestyles and to be visited often. When those expectations were not met, I felt hurt and angry. Didn’t I deserve this?
An alert dear friend told me to “Love what I was doing” which meant to me to love the process of learning more about the family of God and my brothers and sisters everywhere. A shift in thought happened. I found a little oil, a little bit for which to be grateful. I found Love was all around me at work, at the place I volunteer, at church, in the neighborhood, in the stores, on the roads, in the beauty of a birdsong, the glint of the sunshine through a drop of dew, the reflection of the mountains on the lake, the wave of a stranger, the soft cuddle of a cat, the play of a dog, the nuzzle of a horse and so much more.
Being focused on what I thought should be happening, the assumed outcome, I missed the present abundance of good. And that shift in consciousness opened a new world to me. And it is still opening, unfolding, and will continue forever.
We all need to keep shifting and loving what we are doing.
As Mary Baker Eddy says,”The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love.
“Time may commence, but it cannot complete, the new birth: eternity does this; for progress is the law of infinity.” Miscellaneous Writing, p 15.