While
in early recovery, I used to vacation regularly in Maine. Not knowing the area
very well, I’d get lost. So I did something that most men do not do; I asked
for directions.
I
would pull into a gas station and tell the attendant where I’d like to go and a
lot of times they’d say (in their New England accent), “Well, you can’t get
there from here.” And I thought… of course I can’t get there from here or I’d
be there already. This would tick me off.
Half of
me was ticked off and half was listening to the directions and before long I’d
be lost again because I wasn’t fully listening to the directions in the first
place. So I’d have to pull into another gas station and ask for directions
again and it would happen again. “Well, you can’t get there from here.”
After
a couple of times I caught on and I just laughed at myself and was able to
fully listen to the directions given and made it to the place I was going.
It
would have taken me forever to get where I was going if I continued to be in
the “consciousness” I was in. People were willing to help me, but I wasn’t able
to accept it. I was too busy judging them by the way they talked or by the way
they explained themselves, which was different than the way I would have done
it, etc.
Fortunately
this wasn’t a serious situation in life, but it always came up when I worked
with others or at retreats/workshops when others can’t understand why they
can’t change their outlook on something.
Einstein
once said something like, “You can’t fix a problem with the same mindset that
created it.”
We
have to set a new stage for new things to happen in our lives. A new stage
begins by going within. Getting out of our head, out of our own way, and
trusting.
Remember…you
can’t get there from here.
Thank
you,
Namaste
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