Fetch
Who doesn't love playing fetch with a dog? You throw the ball as far as you can, and the dog runs to retrieve the ball. The dog then, light-heartedly, brings it back to you.
That’s kind of like truth.
An "unwanted" moment comes and instead of remaining present to it in order to see what we are being given to see, we "toss the ball" believing we can push the moment away, far away from ourselves.
But a "revelation" can never really be pushed or tossed away, because there exists the beautiful principle of karma. It is like that game of fetch. What we “throw out” is happily (mercifully) brought back to us.
What part of me can’t see truth's light-heartedness in that principle?
What part of me always considers an unwanted moment a punishment?
It is a part of us that we have simply left unquestioned.
It’s the part of us that loves to keep “throwing that ball” believing we are actually doing or accomplishing something in this world by doing that.
Can you count the times that there has been resistance to unwanted moments, together with plans created to ensure that what took place will never happen again to us? You can't count them.
Something happens to our child that we, as a parent, believe is devastating. We then make plans that we believe will protect them from ever having to experience such a painful event again.
But what is actually taking place when we do that?
We are asking for that "ball" that we threw, to be brought back to us again. So, is anything really learned from the experience or are we unknowingly creating a circle of pain in ourselves and our child?
We can't do any better until we know better.
We have all been raised in a world that has its own definition of "good" and "bad." Painful moments are bad, unwanted and should be avoided at all costs.
But what if we were to question that very belief? What if we were to find that the opposite is actually true - that unwanted moments are truly "wanted" moments to the part of us that knows the futility in continually creating circles and cycles of pain.
The movie Groundhog Day was popular because so many people could relate to it. We wake up every day and there's the same old "me", the same rejection of everything we don't like or want, the same complaints about Life.
If we want anything to change in our life, we have to agree to be changed. That's how it works.
So what would happen if we didn't "throw that ball" anymore because we actually saw that unless we did something different, nothing would ever change? The game of fetch would then cease, wouldn't it? It would cease because the pattern was changed, the circle of pain was changed by not picking the ball up in the first place.
In order to be changed, we must choose to keep our hands free to receive what the moment wants to reveal to us. The temptation to pick up that ball and throw it will always be there, but we don't have to take that path because we have taken it our whole lives and it never once made us happier or free from negativity.
Image courtesy of: Mia Anderson on Unsplash
