Knowing

Last week I put the finishing touches on a bathroom I was decorating.  The final task required to complete my project was to hang a picture.  My son was assisting me and we were trying to measure the location of the exact spot to insert the nail so that the picture would be centered in the right place. Once he found the center, I told him, now I want it about four inches above the towel rack.  He responded by telling me that this was too low, and that I should go up at least six inches.  He explained his rationale.  Hesitantly, I agreed.

Once the picture was hung, I was not happy with were it was located.  It was simply too high and I didn’t like the way it looked.  We debated about whether it looked okay, and I tried to feel better about it based on his perception.  He suggested that I was viewing it from the wrong place, and so I attempted to look at it from different angles.  I went with his thoughts, but as the evening passed, I was just not happy.  I continued to bug him until we relocated the picture.  I hung it four inches above the towel rack, and it was as they say – picture perfect!

When I mulled over this situation, I pondered on how easy it was to doubt my own voice.  While this might seem like such an insignificant activity, consider how when magnified, this same scenario could play out in a relationship, health matters, on the job, or in major life decisions.  Thinking about my last relationship, I could look back and see where my “self” had told me the truth.  I was simply distracted as I analyzed the pros and cons against a list someone told me I needed.  Contemplating my health, I had learned not to completely trust doctors and to rely more on my body’s wisdom – but only after several bad experiences.  And finally, I remembered a painstaking financial decision I made seven years ago and how it was impacting me today.  Recalling how at the very moment that I was consummating the agreement, my voice was saying very softly – “No”.  In retrospect, all these circumstances had been from a simple lack of trust, or lack of recognition, in my own voice.  What had caused me not to listen to me?

The irony of this is that I am a great listener – and anyone in my life will say so.  When called upon to listen, I usually refer others back to themselves because every answer we seek is within.  I know this intimately from looking in my rear view mirror.  There is no source outside – be it friend, family, teacher or preacher – that has a better insight or advantage.  All that another can offer is the sharing of their experience, nothing more. 

Why, then, is it so much easier to listen to others?  Could it be that listening with Outer Ears is generally based on logic, facts, and circumstances that are presented that we can assess with rational thinking?  Even listening techniques we learn are outward focused actions – those such as paraphrasing, using eye contact, asking clarifying questions, or giving nonverbal feedback.  Listening requires us to understand, interpret, and evaluate what we hear.  Could it be that this interpretation and evaluation, goes against the grain, when listening to ourselves?  In my contemplation, I’ve learned that there is no need to listen, but to simply “Tune In”.

Tuning In requires activating our Inner Ears.  The Inner Ears, or Spirit, simply knows.  There is no formula or way of explaining what we know – we simply know.   This knowing requires trust, and trust requires surrender.  To surrender requires relinquishing what we think we know and yielding to the fact that no matter what we see, or what we hear from others, that we know what is or what is to be – because we heard it.  This sometimes goes against rational thinking.  When we know, we lay down the desire to create an explanation – or to evaluate what we heard.  We don’t need to explore the pros and the cons.  We don’t need to put all our faith in expert opinions.  We don’t need to evaluate it from different vantage points.  We simply enter the silence of being here now.  We Tune In to our Godness – and we know.

The answer to everything – from hanging a picture to a major life crisis – is with us.  It doesn’t matter what we call it – Self, Spirit, God, Intuition, or such like.  There is an innate intelligence working within that knows every minute, what is best.  All that is required is for us to listen, trust, and respond. 

“Be still and know that I am God” means that we enter our own internal silence long enough to listen and hear the still, small voice of intuition speaking within, guiding us, nurturing us, and making us mindful of each step.  Listening is an outer action.  Tuning In is and inner being.  Knowing is.

Grace