Expect your prayers to be heard!

.
While we, as mankind believe in a Higher Force ~ and have searched for ways to contact, or even placate that Higher Force in order to receive help, healing, or an abundant harvest throughout time, we still seem surprised when our prayers are being answered...

Almost to a point of a sense of ‘un-believe’. And this makes for an interesting paradox. On one side we believe in this Higher Force that holds our lives in His Hand. On the other side we have a really hard time accepting that this Higher Force would actually help us living our lives.
And this duality is one that is common in many areas of our lives, especially where we deal with thing we know, can logically understand, and can touch versus the things we believe in, the things we sense, and even can feel to be true...
As a result we may believe that there is an aspect of ourselves that is unseen; a spiritual part if you wish, and we know there is the physical, logical part of us ~ and yet when something happens that harms our sense of wholeness, we only look at the physical part of ourselves...
By the same token, we may pray for guidance, answers, or even fully implemented solutions ~ and then when we get what we have asked for we all too often see what comes to us as ‘punishment’ rather than the answer to our prayers.
Or maybe we just don’t understand...

Now, if we would live our lives from the premise that our prayers will be answered ~ always! ~ we might be more on the lookout for new and unexpected solutions coming our way. And we might recognize that when something happens that can be exactly what we asked for in our prayers.

Like when there is a drought and more and more people ~ independent from each other ~ start praying for some rain to fall. To freshen the air. To feed nature. To save our crops...
And then when it starts raining ~ and raining, and raining (!) ~ we feel like we are punished because there is no sunshine, and it feels like Autumn in the middle of Summer. And all the while we forget that this rain in essence is the answer to our prayers! Even when it is a bit more than we ‘bargained for’...

The thing is, that often we forget to look at life with an open mind.
We ask for some rain in our prayers, and we have already decided in our own minds that we would like to have one nice thunder shower in the evening, followed by another day of sunshine. If we get less rain than that which we have in mind, we have a tendency to dismiss it as too little. Do we get more rain than we had in mind ~ we feel punished because the nice Summer weather is taken away from us.

And we forget that what we asked for was rain, and what we got was rain...

So expect your prayers to be answered ~ yet be careful what you ask for!
.
.

Mice, Mouses, and Trackpads

.
The mouse, the little creature whose essence energy is courage, is ~ at least in the way we talk about it ~ many things. It can be mousy, or a pest. It can be really quiet. It can scare off huge elephants. And one thing is certain ~ every mouse has a tail...

And it is that tail, in a sense, that connects that other mouse breed to its source ~ the computer mouse. And through its tail it gets and sends its commands so our computers behave the way we wan them to.

And while mice are not everybody’s favorite ~ pretty much no-one has a problem with mouses. We like the way they fit in our hands, the way they move smoothly in all directions. And like mice, mouses do better ~ are faster ~ on a surface that gives them some traction.
So much do we like our mouses that we have ‘mutated’ them into a shape that has no tail; that is not tethered to the computer anymore. This gives us an even greater range of movement. Within reason, we can ‘pet’ our mouses into controlling our computers from a distance...

And from these little rodents ~ the biological mice as well as the mechanical mouses ~ we eventually moved away. Seeking new and improved ways to guide and direct our new best friends: our computers.

We have found that we can be courageous from behind our computers. We can communicate via our computers with people around the world. We can do research, do our shopping, play games ~ even watch TV shows and listen to (internet) radio programs. If not for having our physical, mundane obligations like driving the kids to school, or showing up at that meeting in the office ~ we are in a position where we could live our entire lives from behind a computer.
Even without ever petting a mouse.

Because now we have smaller computers that we can take along wherever we go ~ and these computers now have nice, soft, smooth trackpads. And by ‘petting’ these trackpads with either one or two fingers, sometimes even making movements ~ we get ever more accurate ways of directing and controlling our computer friends...

Personally, I have great respect for mice and their essence energy of courage. This doesn’t mean that I would like them to live in my house ~ or even for my cats to bring me life mice; something they occasionally do.
And to be honest, I like trackpads a lot more that mouses ~ tethered or not.

As for our computer friends...
They most certainly have a place in our societies of this point in time. And yet, I really like the more physical communication with the world around me...

There is more to life than mice, mouses and trackpads after all...
.
.

Muses

.
Usually it is easy to listen to the Muses. The only thing needed is for me to be quiet enough to actually hear them... The whispers into my inner ear. The hints of ideas that, when I start thinking about them seem to have an unclear origin ~ yet seem to have value nonetheless.

When I muse on those things, they are sometimes mundane things, other times things of a more spiritual nature. Funny really ~ that even worldly topics come to my mind in that manner. I would have thought it more likely for more spiritual musings to be murmured into my inner ears ~ or delved from the subconscious regions of my mind...
And yet, here they are ~ nice, practical, mundane topics. Things that we all encounter on our paths. When I start thinking out loud about them, the words start flowing ~ bringing them from ideas to concepts. From the nebulous, to something that at least in my mind I can walk around and observe from all angles.

Now, one would think that in times when there are plenty of mundane, worldly things to write about ~ words would come even easier. After all, the things worth writing about are happening right in front of our eyes! What can be easier than to take any one of those things and write about them?

It doesn’t quite work that way for me.

Because when a lot of things are happening all at once ~ they keep my mind occupied. They bring strings of thoughts that are hard to stop. Right as I have handled one thing, another thing is in need of my attention. And so I keep running in my mind from one thing to the next ~ all the while getting the feeling that what I really am doing is running behind the facts.
And from that point it everything seems to be too little, too late ~ and a dollar short...

Pondering the fact that all of a sudden the words don’t flow anymore ~ I realize that the whispers have stopped. No faint-colored ideas that have just escaped that nebulous place where there are no words at all. No murmurs in the background giving my peculiar information.

When my life gets too busy, when my mind gets to be too loud ~ when I don’t permit myself any time to listen, the Muses are quiet.
Patiently waiting for me to notice that something is ‘off’ ~ for me to muse on that silence even... When that happens, I allow my mind to be still and listen once again.

And in that quiescence I may hear the soft sound of laughter in the distance ~ a tinkling sound that comes closer. No sooner than the moment I turn to see where it is coming form do I find that these sounds have no worldly origin...
I am listening to my Muses.
.
.

Pressure

.
There are many kinds of pressure, and when you start thinking about it, not all of them are bad...

For most of us, being put under pressure is a stressful event. Whether it is the pressure of an exam, an interview, the deadline of a job, or having to get somewhere in time while the rush hour traffic is moving nowhere fast...

But then there are also those that find themselves performing better when under a certain amount of pressure. The will to win, to be the best, or to come out on top can be fueled by the added pressure. And often, when this is the case, pressure is not necessarily considered a bad thing.
It is, however, a thing that if not released periodically, can flip into something that is detrimental to us ~  be it health-wise, mentally or emotionally.

As such, pressure is something that can be found pretty much anywhere. Even in nature there are instances when it is under pressure. This can be pressure from us, humans ~ something that sometimes is referred to as our ‘carbon footprint’ ~ or something that is of nature itself; like a massive thunderstorm.

Most of us have experienced that kind of building up of pressure in nature... The way it begins with a temperature or humidity that suddenly seems to become heavy. Almost like there is no oxygen left in the air. The way it affects the atmosphere, not only outside, but also indoors. So much so that when you finally see dark clouds packing together, there is a sense that things are about to change. And then that moment when the pressure seems to be greatest ~ when everything is quiet, and even the wind has died down...
Then there is the lightning and the thunder ~ and as soon as the first drops of rain fall, nature is releasing all that pressure; usually with a ‘bang’.
Immediately it cools down, the heaviness is gone. And when the rain stops, the air is clean and has that very specific ‘after a thunder storm ~ scent’.

As a polarity, a pressure that can be beneficial to us, is the pressure applied in a massage; or in an acupressure treatment. Through a ‘counter pressure’, the pressure that is on the verge of becoming too much for us to handle is being released ~ leaving us feeling refreshed and filled with energy.

At this point in time, when polarity aspects of many issues seem to be staring us right in our faces ~ something that can put us under pressure in its own right ~ it is more important than ever before to  find balance instead of permitting either extreme to overwhelm us...
.
.

Traffic

.
Over the past couple of days I have been intrigued by the manner in which traffic is finding its way to where everybody is going...
What is usually a fairly orderly event ~ even during rush hour ~ suddenly turned into something much less structured. Or so it seems.

Driving around my hometown I see drivers disregarding traffic lights, haphazardly changing lanes, speeding, and most of all everybody seems to be very frustrated that they are not the only person driving that road on that very instance.

It is not just drivers of cars that act like they are a little ‘out of it’...

This afternoon in the supermarket people with shopping carts or shopping baskets kept bumping in to one another ~ or, maybe as a polarity, started a long conversation with a friend right in the middle of a narrow isle; ensure no-one could pass them.
I though it was an interesting, even somewhat amusing occurrence. After all, many of us pay to see a somewhat overstated, slightly chaotic situation like that in a theatre! Yet in the supermarket it just sparked frustration.

When something similar happens in traffic, the stakes are higher ~ and so is the frustration level!

A couple of days ago I was driving home when a lady on a bicycle drove onto the intersection right in front of me. She had the right of way, so I had just about stopped the car in order to let her traverse the crossing. To my surprise she almost drove her bicycle into my car! The reason? She was texting while riding her bike.

Texting and traffic don’t mix.
Not even when riding a bike.

It makes me wonder what it is that makes it so hard for us to stay calm, cool, and collected... Is it the ever higher frequency of energy that we are living in at this point in time? Or are we really that much more in a hurry these days? Could it be a collective sense of nervousness? Like we may experience when something is about to happen, and while we feel this is true and sense the anticipation ~ we may not even know what it is that could happen. Or where, or when...

In other words, are we just reacting to something outside of ourselves, something we perhaps don’t even know what it is, yet have a sense that it is ‘out there’? Or is this something from inside ourselves? Even something that we are projecting onto the world outside of ourselves ~ especially while partaking in traffic?

Either way, it seems to me that it would be a good idea to stand still for a moment and to take a deep breath. To let go of this frustration or unease. To connect with life itself!
Especially when we need to enter into traffic in order to get to where we want to be...
.
.