What pushes you forward?
What holds you back?
To what and to whom are you listening?
*
Imagine you found yourself alone in a dark forest. Imagine it is a time of war.
You want to get home to safety, and you have to carefully trace your steps and find your way back home.
As you begin doing that, you hear a baby cry.
At first, you don’t know if you are hearing the baby cry. But the more you stay quiet and breathe, the more you know it is a baby crying, and there are no other voices around to suggest that the baby has a caretaker.
Some people may be so stressed and overwhelmed that they say, “I have to ignore it. I have to get home. I don’t know anything about that baby, and I don’t want to know.” These people may start thinking five steps down the line: If there is a baby in this forest and there is no parent, then I have to get home with the baby, and then I have to figure out how to take care of the baby or call someone who can take care of the baby. It’s just too much. I’m just focusing on my task and putting this out of my mind.
Other people may be utterly compelled to find the baby and see if she is okay. These people will listen closely and take careful steps toward the cry so they can do whatever it is to ensure that the baby is alright and cared for. These people are not thinking about the responsibility of having a baby and what will happen if the baby is unattended. They just listen and respond because for them, there is no other way.
I am sharing this because the people above have two modes of operating. The second group is aligned with God. The first is saturated by the expectations of the material world, and so distracted by thinking and future plans, that they have lost their hearts and their raison d’etre.
We are here to love one another, to be with one another, to be unified and in unity.
We are not here to divide, to conquer, to think only of ourselves and our futures at the expense of those who are weakest among us. And yet, this approach seems to gain more traction when we look around at leadership and systems of authority. There are plenty who will find the crying baby in the forest. There are plenty others who will prefer to get home and manage their 401Ks. They are often the ones we see on our screens, earning news headlines.
We are given a conscience because it is a knock on our inner soul’s door that says, “Something is not right.”
When we refuse to listen to our consciences, we become sick. We may not appear sick on the outside. We may put on a lot of make-up or wear nice clothes. But inside, we will be sick, and that sickness inside us will bubble up and poison others around us. It can infect other people, if they are susceptible and impressionable, and if we are viewed as having authority and intelligence.
I share this because it is a gift to share it. It is freely given. If I charged you money for this gift, would it be as trustworthy?
If someone says to you, “I have secret, special knowledge of how to live on this planet. You must pay me 15 euros and I will give you my secret and special knowledge,” you’d call that lady a “gypsy,” wouldn’t you?
When it comes to healing, and trusting ourselves, we are only able to build that foundation that is solid if we separate ourselves from ones who would say, “Leave the forest and find what makes you comfortable and someone else can take care of the crying baby.”
For the crying baby is the voice of God, and many do not believe there is a God.
Where is the voice of the baby crying in your life, today?
Are you compelled toward the cry—
or away?
Word Wizardry
Compel: v, to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly (from Merriam-Webster)
Compelling: adj, that compels, such as a) forceful b) demanding attention c) convincing
From Etymonline (my personal FAVORITE INTERNET PLACE!—get thee to’it)
"to drive or urge irresistibly by physical or moral force," mid-14c., from Old French compellir and directly from Latin compellere "to drive together, drive to one place" (of cattle), "to force or compel" (of persons), from com "with, together" (see com-) + pellere "to drive" (from PIE root *pel- (5) "to thrust, strike, drive"). Related: Compelled; compelling.
*We interpret and understand according to the inner reality in which we hum.