Easy Street
Sure. We may be complex individuals operating in what we often perceive to be a complicated world, but most of us are remembering that our life experience does not always have to be so damn difficult. Recognizing that we are the creators of our life experience is one thing, but practicing it on a daily basis is quite another.
If our natural state is to harmonize with our Divine Source of well-being, you would think it would be easy enough to do. The experts remind us to just “choose” it and it will be. Right. Then what?!
After many years of studying, reading, discussing, and attempting about a million different ways to elevate my vibrational frequency in order to “go with the flow,” the idea of ease and simplicity seemed foreign to me. I was working to understand so many complex and mystical principles that connecting the dots only took me deeper into the theory of human potential and true magic. The actual practice of deliberate creation turned out to be none of those things.
As Candace so eloquently summarizes it, “We learned all of that to know that it wasn’t that.”
So what is it, then? What is this elegantly simple process of creating our own life experience? Ah, and perhaps the real question is, can I provide an elegantly simple answer?!
The truth is that I know you can. Your method of remembering the ease and simplicity of deliberate creation lies in your recognition of the process as it is already unfolding in your everyday experience. Consciously recognize the ease of a certain situation in your life, increase your awareness of its beauty by turning your attention toward how good it feels, and practice appreciating this inherent energy of simplicity until it becomes your proclivity. Once you remember what “easy street” feels like, you can systematically acclimate yourself to expect nothing less.
These ongoing instances of ease do not have to be some earth-shattering event to recognize. Holding out for some cosmic and mystical sign from the heavens, or a Divine revelation that is illuminated in the form of a giant bonk on the head is always a choice. But while you are waiting for that to happen, you might not want to miss the opportunity to recognize the smaller light bulbs that are hovering around. Sometimes, it is the simple things that are just waiting to be noticed.
I run every day. Okay, sometimes I walk a lot in between the actual running. In any case, I usually try to complete somewhere between three to six miles, depending on how hot it is outside, how early I managed to get started, and how much time I have on my schedule for the day.
Last Sunday, I set out early enough that I knew I would be able to extend my distance. Since we live in a rural area, I usually enjoy the pleasure of having the long and winding roads to myself during most of my run. On the occasions when I want to increase my total distance, there is one road in particular that provides the perfect extended loop. Taking this road forces me to run additional miles before I can head back home.
There are some plaguing issues with this road. Unlike the other roads along my trek, this one has some irritating features.
For one thing, the speed limit is 55 miles per hour, which means vehicles usually travel at a rate of 70 to 80 miles per hour. This wide-open country highway is hard for many motorists to resist. Even the law enforcement officers who live in our neighborhood speed on this road.
The other issue with this highway is two-fold. First, it has been repaved with the ‘asphalt-over-asphalt’ method at least one thousand times, making its height above the actual terrain that it travels over staggering. Secondly, the concept of a ‘berm’ here is nonexistent. Unlike most roads in other parts of the country, here we let our grass and weeds grow right up to the edge of the road. Then we seldom, if ever, mow it. This way all the snakes, lizards, and occasional alligators have a place to bask in the privacy of the damp overgrowth and patiently lie in wait for any unsuspecting idiot who may be foolish enough to walk through it on a damp morning.
Adhering to common courtesy and pedestrian rules, I always face oncoming traffic when I am running on the road. Motorists are usually traveling so fast here that they will not have enough time to go around me, either due to oncoming traffic, or they are just not paying attention and will not see me in time. Then there are the few motorists who just don’t give a shit while they are racing toward me. In any case, I always take full responsibility when it comes to evasive maneuvers. Vehicles are bigger, stronger, and faster than me, and I figure that they were here first. The road belongs to them.
Should a 50-year old be forced to break her stride in order to avoid any oncoming vehicles, she would risk potential ankle twisting and knee injury, or suffer possible repercussions derived from startling a reptile. Anything can happen upon her intrusion into the depths of this hostile roadside. In fact, she would prefer to avoid any of these scenarios altogether.
Well aware of the lurking dangers, I opted to forge ahead. My reasoning stems from the possibility that a key lime pie might mysteriously follow me home from the bakery later that day. Taking the long route home affords me the luxury of less remorse should I allow myself the pleasure of indulging in more than one slice:) There are just some things worth the risk. With a vision of sugary lime filling in my head, the decision to take the long and treacherous loop home was made.
Feeling in the groove, I had covered most of the distance and was approaching the quiet crossroad that would finally take me off Five-Mile High Reptile Road. Traffic had been pleasantly sparse up to this point, and I could see my turn-off a mere one-quarter of a mile in the distance.
That was when I noticed the rapid parade of vehicles speeding toward me. My current pie-eating runner’s buzz waned as I began calculating the time and distance that I would require to get the hell off the road. Just when I thought I would have to react, I realized that all of the approaching vehicles were slowing down. One by one, (almost like magic!), every single oncoming vehicle systematically decreased their speed and turned onto the adjacent crossroad that I was heading for.
Every moment that I had to consider eyeballing my exit strategy, the looming menace ahead would avert its path toward me. I was free! There was ample time to relax and keep running right where I was comfortable.
This miraculous procession orchestrated itself perfectly until I easily reached my turn-off. The experience just felt so incredibly easy that I could not help but enjoy and appreciate the beautiful simplicity in which it had just transpired. Quite unlike any other time that I had taken my run along this road, this felt “easy as pie.”
Never mind that it was 9:20 on a Sunday morning, and there just happens to be a church on that road which holds its Sunday service at 9:30 a.m. I did not consciously time my run accordingly, nor did I consider this schedule when I left the house. It just happened that way. It was simple and sweet.
I know it is just a small and seemingly insignificant thing. Nonetheless, I would hate to miss the opportunity to recognize one of those little ‘light bulbs’ that are always available while I am waiting for some enormous and mystical sky-writing revelation to bonk me on the head:)
The little things are important! As stated in the movie Zombieland, “Enjoy the little things.”
It’s so important to notice those tiny occurrences that only occur because of YOU!
Sometimes I will notice something that happened just at the right time, or happened so luckily in my favor, and I will pass it off as a coincidence. NO! I always forget that the fact that the teacher was not paying attention at the exact moment I came into the classroom late, was no coincidence at all. It was my constant, “She won’t see me, she won’t see me, she won’t see me,” the whole way to the classroom that allowed me to take a seat without a detention in my hand.
Referring back to “the little things” can really do a number in the process of controlling the BIG things in our lives.