Tag: travel

gut feelings

Most human beings have them at one time or another throughout their life. Some of us trust our gut feelings more; others, less. Some of us go into Risk Assessment mode: others simply make a snap decision and implement. Gut Feelings are the simple result of the blending of intuition and discernment based on accumulated knowledge and past experience. In other words, living life. These processes operate subconsciously until needed; then they percolate to the surface to play their part in our decision-making process. Thus the question before us becomes—  To what degree can we trust our gut feelings?

The question points us back to at least two other questions about ourselves.

1.      To what degree do I feel safe in life?

2.      To what degree do I trust anything, or, anyone (for that matter)?

Having a sense of personal safety lays a broad foundation for so much of life’s quirky situations. If you feel safe within yourself, you are more prone to serve others, to make decisions more readily, to be able to care even when the road ahead becomes unclear. Developing an ability to trust people— as dangerous as it might often prove, is still our best ally in times of need, or when teamwork is essential to get the job done. It is also an essential thread in the very fabric of human relationships.

Being safe (personal security) and trusting others are both outgrowths of practice and knowing your core values. The more you can define your core values, beliefs, and personhood, the more safety and trust will be able to function freely in your life. Thus, gut feelings join our inner and outward selves into a unified presentation to others of who we truly are. Gut feelings align with confidence and accomplishment to forge our character and to create a stronger person, one whose assurance in making correct decisions proves true. Then, other people are more comfortable trusting us, more comfortable following our leadership.

Now let’s throw trusting God into the mix. Acting on a gut feeling about trusting Him can add a great deal of certitude to your overall confidence in facing a difficult dilemma. Try it. You’ll like it. [Except for the first time. That’s scary.]

Take the plunge,

Gary

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lilting opacity

Light. It illuminates whatever it touches…, mostly. [It can burn too.] Light clarifies, brightens, melts the cold, and pierces the darkness. Light is necessary for sight to work. It is necessary for organic life to grow on the surface of this small planet, dangling in space. Light shines! And it soothes all those basking in it to its radiance and warmth.

Solid objects block light— buildings, window shades, trees, and definitely mountains (unless you are standing on top of one, of course). Some people block light too. They block light coming into them— dense. They block light issuing from them— dark. There is something about them that dims the light around them and grows darker the closer we approach. To know them intimately is not to know them at all—their true self lies veiled somewhere within their shroud of darkness. They do little to shed light on the truth, on others, and even on themselves.

Opacity describes the capacity to block light or to allow it to shine through. Opacity diffuses intense light into a spectrum of gentleness that is soft to the touch, soothing the eyes, and caressing the beholder. It may be how the Lord God actually veils himself to us, protecting us from his grandeur. Lilting describes the ability of a musical score, a breeze, or a swaying motion, to lift the spirit, to grant it fleeting lightness and a whimsical feeling of soaring. It is the bearable lightness of being. Melding these two images into one presents us a visage of our ability to become vessels of light, lifting the spirits of others to pass through whatever darkness they may reside and to grasp the hope needed to rise above their personal mire, loss, pain, or emptiness.

We have a choice, you and I— to cloak the light granted to us in inner darkness, or to rise above our bitterness, grief, and regret, to allow that Light, infused within us by the Lord God Creator, to glow through every crevice of our being, thus drawing other people out of their own dark night of the soul. A note of warning:  light does have the power to burn as well. It may sear you to let your light so shine. So make sure that the source of your light is a friendly one. The Light may still singe you as it glitters and grows brighter; but, then again, some things have need to be burned away to make a way for the clear light to shine through.

Have a nice week,

Gary