Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Do your best and then relax.

Let things go on in a natural way, rather than force them.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Now, let me think. I can do this now. My partner Dennis was unemployed for 1.5 years. He would apply for jobs, but nothing happened. But, we didn’t “panic”. [Remember those T-shirts a few years ago that said simply, “Don’t Panic!”? ] And we had a wonderful time being together and going birding and doing fun things. We relaxed into prayer, and “gave it all up” to the Universe ….. and lo and behold he got a great job that uses all his great skills as a chef and inn-owner and over 20 years of working in food service ….. and only 14 miles from our property in NM where we wanted to retire! To enter fully into the Great Metaphor, “God is Good”!

However, in my own personal case, I have to admit that “waiting upon God” is congenital with me. And I’ve had a help-meet all these years: the Goddess of Procrastination. I’m just built to procrastinate ….. and I’ve found over the decades that if I just wait, things resolve. This is VERY good for someone who loathes conflict and competition with a passion! [OK, OK, there have been some instances where I have had to “confront” …. but it was under severe duress!]

But: we are not a culture that teaches or honours the process called from the glorious 60’s (and I mean that!) “Going with the Flow”. We are taught to compete, and to engage, and to do whatever we can to make things work out the way we want ….. even if it means trampling others to mush in the process. And in all that, we co-opted Jesus as our guru ….. remember the book “Jesus is my CEO”?? Puh-leeze!

Anyway: maybe the young in general can’t manage the “Go with the Flow” paradigm? If you aren’t out there shaping the World so that you get want you want/deserve, you a branded a wimp. But I think this is clearly a defective spiritual principle. I don’t see the Buddha or Jesus as an example of the “Take the World by the Throat and Wrestle it into Submission” approach.

“Forcing” things, generally I think, leads inevitably to failure, as well as lots of conflict, stress, bad health, and possible heart attack and death ….. oh dear, is this why I’m writing about this?? The propensity for War is an example: it rarely leads to a solution to anything, and it gets a lot of people killed and horribly maimed.

Nope. I’m for “Going with the flow”. Getting in synch with the Universe, knowing we are an integral part of its “flow”, and waiting expectantly for the moment in time when our boat joins the flotilla.

Sounds very “new age”, I know. All I can say is, I’ve done it all my Life ….. and I can’t complain! At 65, we are off on a new stage of the delicious Adventure of “Going with the Flow”.

Brian+