Many of us are
aware of the song that tells us that signs are everywhere. I have indeed found
this to be the truth on my own journey of growth and healing. Once we aspire to
increased personal awareness the universe conspires to support us in that
quest.
Each and
everything we encounter is purposeful in that it nudges us forward in our goal,
if we are in tune to its presence. Some signs are delivered to us in neon,
making them nearly unavoidable, while others are whispered phrases from our
intuition or spoken words from another’s tongue. Each beckons us to examine
them and ask what insight they have to come share.
The worst thing
we can do with these offerings is to ignore them. Many times the mind
supersedes the flashes of guidance being presented, discounting its importance
and what we feel to be its meaning. I beg of you, do not heed the fearful
chattering of your mind, but simply follow the trail of metaphoric crumbs that
have been laid out for you on your path back to yourself.
That is exactly
what I have done as I embarked on my odyssey of personal healing, one that led
me to self-compassion and forgiveness of myself and others. No matter how
insignificant the presentation seemed to my mental interpretation, I dared to
explore its teachings. Never did the universe cease from sharing as it
suggested, “Try this,” and “Did you hear that?”
Below is
another excerpt from my memoir, Relentless,
A Journey of Forgiveness, due to be released on Amazon next month. It is a
prime example of the sometimes simple but profound tools that are given to us
learn anew.
******
A Timeless Tale
Hans Christian
Andersen came to lend me a helping hand as I sought to release and rebuild, or
at least his story, The Ugly Duckling,
had.
I kept having
flashes of images from the version adapted and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney,
one I had read to my boys in years past. I also kept hearing the title over and
over again. What I remembered about the times I had read this story was my
feelings of sympathy for the sad little duckling that struggled to fit in while
enduring the others’ cruelties and, of course, the jubilation at his victorious
ending.
Next the
phrase, “I’m a swan,” kept replaying in my mind. At first I scoffed at idea
that I was a swan, a seemingly vain proclamation, but it would not cease its
incessant trumpeting into my awareness. Obviously, I was meant to listen, not
just to the words, but the message itself.
Soon enough, I
grasped that what I was being shown was the simple truth that I was the odd
bird, the one that could never fit in and fully belong to my family of origin
because I was a different breed. That’s not to say I was better than they, just
that I was not the same. I could never be a duck because I was a swan; there
was no changing that core truth. All of my years of trying to fit in to their
mold were in vain, and could have only ended in the defeat that had become so
familiar to me. I got it. There was never
anything wrong with me!
Desperate times
call for desperate measures, and I openly embraced a children’s story as my
guide. Perhaps my process sounds quite elementary, but I tell you my shoulders
dropped in relief yet another notch as I allowed the understanding to wipe away
a bit more of the self-loathing grime that smothered and blanketed my soul.
Perhaps the
story was also an omen of things to come, that I might just get my fairytale
ending, but only after completing several more chapters of my own life.
******
I encourage you
to adjust your dial to the universal broadcast and those flashes it interjects
into your days as guideposts for what may come if you simply follow their lead.
It is those things that cause you to pause, ponder and question- maybe even
give you an internal jolt- that are the keys to the doors which you seek to
unlock. It is through these signs that you can know that you are never alone or
hopeless on your trek.
