Gently, please!

It appears that I need a new mantra. Asking for messages, asking to be open, has left me with bandaids all over my body. As much fun as I am having with my "temporary tattoos" of peace and yin & yang signs, I have to say, I could stand to receive my messages more gently. I'm reminded of Richard from Texas in Eat, Pray, Love--he was asking repeatedly for his heart to be open and to receive a sign when the opening had occurred. After a few months of this prayer, he ended up having open-heart surgery. "So now Richard is always cautious with his prayers, he tells me. 'Whenever I pray for anything these days, I always wrap it up by saying, "Oh, and God? Please be gentle with me, OK?"'"

I can totally relate. In addition to the average, run-of-the-mill stubbed toes and bumped funny bones, I've fallen down the stairs (twice in one week!) and bruised my tailbone, I've had a knee injury that left me literally on the couch for six weeks, I've thrown my back out such that I was unable to get out of bed for three days, I've had countless sinus infections and stomach flus that completely knocked me out. Heck, in the past month alone, I've had a concussion, gotten poison oak, and even stabbed myself in the foot. My friends say I'm a klutz, that I'm accident prone, but I know there has been a message in each of these incidents--usually one that had been ignored previously, which is how it ended up ultimately being delivered in such a large way.

So I've learned that, "Gently, please!" is a good addendum to any request for aid. And perhaps even more importantly, I've learned that I need to be mindful. Mindful of my thoughts, mindful of where I'm going, mindful of what I'm doing. And if I'm asking for messages, if I'm asking for things to be clear, then I really need to listen for an answer. I never saw anything that looked like poison oak, but I know exactly where I was when I brushed up against it because, in retrospect, my intuition had pointed it out to me. As I was walking up to a tree that was hanging out over the sidewalk, a thought popped into my head, "Poison oak!" And I kind of laughed it off and thought, "It's a good thing this branch I'm walking past isn't poison oak." The next day, I had what looked like a spider bite on my arm. Again, poison oak popped into my head. Instead of ignoring it this time, I put a bandaid on it, "just in case." One itchy week later, I definitely know the next time any thought of poison oak pops into my head I will recognize it for the intuitive message that it is. Hindsight may be 20/20, but when we're paying attention, we can have real-time guidance as well.

So I go into this new week with my double request to be more open and to receive messages clearly, but always to have my prayers answered gently. What kinds of messages have you been receiving lately? Could you use to receive them a little more gently? Join me in my "Gently, please!" mantra this week and let me know how it goes! Namaste.

Photo: "La Fleuve," originally uploaded by Powderruns

Enjoying Learning to Fly? Stumble It to share with others looking for inspiration!