Showing posts with label unknown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unknown. Show all posts

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Surprise



Wow moment ...  I must admit it was to me - enjoy the read ..........
The Element of Surprise  |  by Ian Lawton
Aristotle said, “The secret to humor is surprise.” I would go even further than Aristotle. The secret to living fully and freely is surprise. Not knowing is the most exhilarating, sometimes frightening but always liberating, open ended mindset of all. Vera Nazarian describes it like this,
“Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator. So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.”
Surprise is more important than belief. Belief is a period at the end of an experience, surprise is a question mark, an exclamation mark or maybe a comma, giving you time to pause and ponder the possibilities.
Surprise is the spontaneous friend, always suggesting adventure out of the blue. Belief is the sensible, predictable friend. We need both but unfortunately in our tightly controlled lives, sensible usually trumps spontaneity.
A belief is like a carefully labeled filling system. Something happens, and you immediately file it under “I’ve seen this before, I know what this is, this means...” Something else happens and you reach for the file called, “I told me so.”
I’d like to see more surprise, and less set in stone beliefs. Unless, of course, you create a belief that every moment is a surprise. That’s a belief with potential.
It’s no accident that most spiritual traditions have some form of parable, or surprising stories and various tricksters to jolt us out of a habitual mindset and it all rests on the element of surprise. Surprise is THE most spiritual quality that leads to all sorts of awakening.

See more from Ian Lawton + Surprise + Humor + Mystery + Fulfillment
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Ian Lawton is a spiritual teacher of inner wisdom, divine love, deeper consciousness, oneness, peace, and abundance.Learn more about Ian Lawton »

Sunday, December 16, 2012

On the Edge

Every felt like you were "on the edge" .... of "something"?  But you were really uncertain what that "something" was?  Did you fight it?  Did you go with it?  Did you hesitate and ask questions?  Did you pause and begin to search inward for some clarity?

If you thought you knew what it was that you needed to do but found that you balked ... again and again - what happened next?  Where did you go from there?  To God?  What if you believed you knew what God was saying but you still had trouble following through?

Why do we make things like this so damn hard sometimes?  Is it courage we are lacking?  Is it fear ..... that we "don't" know what's going to happen next?  Or that we won't like it?

Or is it fear that we "do" know what's going to happen next?  (Really?)  Do any of us really know what's going to happen next?  I don't think so - not completely anyway.  I think we want to believe we know, or maybe we are afraid that we might know, or maybe we are afraid that we don't know - and then, we are just afraid - period!

Don't know about you - but I hate that place!  So, why is it that I can find myself there sometimes --- up there, like the image.  Teetering on the edge - frozen with fear - STUCK !

Sometimes we just have to pray for the courage, pray for the ability to DO - to trust God more fully - WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT .... and then, trust God some more and just JUMP!