 The one journey we all have to take is our own life journey. Is there a route map dispatched with each one of us as we arrive on planet Earth? I believe there are two, one entitled Personal Responsibility and one headed Global Responsibility. They move independently but when applied together, produce a major work of art.
When I learned to drive, quite some years ago now, I was advised that before any action behind the wheel I should think of three simple words – Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre. This procedure, carefully completed would lead to a responsible response and safety for oneself and others. I am not sure if it is part of the advice given to today’s drivers but it seems to me to benefit any traveller be they driving a vehicle, operating a machine or moving through daily life.
Take a situation and see if by applying the Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre principle it brings clarity, confirmation and direction.
Mirror
The mirror allows us to observe and benefit from both seeing where we are and where we have been, a sort of rearguard sentinel. To proceed further we must own the past without judgement, honour our part in history, face facts, forgive and move on into the future – as yet a work of fiction. It takes courage to face the mirror, to hold the gaze long enough to confront the lines of life’s legacy, to take stock of the load and identify its label. Do the garments you have packed for the journey fit you or someone else? Freshly laundered or someone else’s dirty washing? Their baggage may look like yours, but it is theirs to lighten, with your support maybe, but not so as to become a burden. We all carry baggage in one form or another but given acknowledgement and personal responsibility it can be transformed from the burden of baggage to the luggage of enlightenment, away from a cloak of confusion to become a coat of many colours. From one coat of many colours the spectrum of life is complete. No more suitcases forced into closure; travel lightly, it makes for an easier journey. You benefit, and in turn the world does too. Lighten up, your clear light will assist the periscope of peace turning the world full circle.
A mirror is not just to reflect oneself; we are all mirrors of each other, facing the same issues. We use the term ‘lessons’ of life, but I find that reminds me only of the polarity of success or failure; the term ‘assessment’ feels far more comfortable for me – an ongoing work in progress.
Signal
How often before a decision do we ask for a sign? Where do we look for a sign? Well anywhere and everywhere. It is not where to find a sign, it is more about its interpretation. Everything has the potential to present us with direction. To discover your sign it pays to get up close and personal, for it will be personal to you. Don’t adopt the symbol of another, for it is your responsibility to move through your own understanding. What freedom, what choice! As an example, my daughter has a particular number, but it could be a colour, a phrase, a song, a bird, a shape, and so on. Be assured that, once chosen, your sign will make itself known to you at just the appropriate moment. Believe in the unseen escort who makes all things manifest and you will recognise the potential sign in all things. When your chosen sign appears, ask yourself, does this direction move my heart into compassion? Does it make me smile? Not the plastic smile that masks the truth and tricks us into dutiful denial, but the one that beams out from the realm of reality – ‘to thy own self be true’. One broad smile in honest and open response to life may just become the sign someone else is searching for. Does your decision bring butterflies to your stomach? That’s good, for you are on the way to movement, and you need to use the uplifting energy of the butterfly wings to find your own.
Manoeuvre
Once the mirror has found its reflection, the signal/sign has found its meaning and we are moved to take a certain direction, we come upon the aaah! moment. Be Alert, become Aware, stay Awake. Now is the time to act upon the culminating wisdom of ages, bringing back the basics but with a renewed passion that can only be acquired by maintaining the journey. All journeys offer choice, and, anxiety about whether we are on the ‘right path’ may result in missing a sign or two, but there is never a right or wrong path, only a way. Either path will eventually bring the same inner experience through a different external one. If you really cannot make a decision, or feel you have missed the bus, relax, there will be another one along shortly – probably two! – and then you will have another choice!
Looking back over planet Earth’s journey we can see the part we have played in her present predicament. The distress she faces, we face also, burdened by her fragility to which we have contributed through our lack of personal and global responsibility.
If we are able face facts with honesty, and are given even just one day to act in new ways of compassion for all life, we will have not only faced the mirror but performed the ‘act of Alice’ as I call it. For we will have walked through the looking glass to the world that awaits each one of us personally and globally, when we reflect inner beauty and harmony.
These are just words written upon a page, my words, my thoughts, from my heart, for which I am personally responsible. It is for you to do the same with your own words and thoughts, to feel every aspect through your own heart, for without that heartfelt commitment to both personal and global responsibility – man becomes the machine.
With love, the energetic vibration of life,
Mary
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