-Scott Shute
It’s back to school time in our house. There are new backpacks, books, pencils. There are locker combinations to remember and school lunches to pack. A teacher waits with eyebrows raised and asks “Do you have your listening ears on?” Soccer and baseball are starting again. A new cycle has started and excitement is bubbling.
But as adults, the learning cycles aren’t always so obvious. We don’t necessarily get a new backpack as a signal that new lessons are coming. For life-long learners, I think the changes come more often and more naturally. We’ve sent a message to the universe that says “I still want more. I’m not done yet”. Not more money or more things….but more “me”. The true “me”, the ancient wise one, that pure spark of energy that is truth itself. To get to that point requires continuous refining, continuous learning.
I heard someone explaining last week that “Where there’s suffering or tension, there’s learning.” Ok, it’s true, I agree. Tension is an amazing teacher. But long ago I decided, owing to my fundamental laziness, that I wanted an easier path. I observed the pain and suffering in the world and said…”hmm, is there a better way?”
The secret is in the listening. I think it goes something like this…
Life taps at the door very quietly with a new lesson, waiting patiently for our acknowledgment. If ignored, then comes a knock. Still ignored? Then a couple of sharp raps on the door. If we don’t answer, life is still determined. We have requested this lesson after all, whether we’re conscious of it or not. So life now pounds on the door with both fists. “Strange”, we say, “all that noise in the hall. I wonder what it could be.” Life is kicking the door, shaking the pictures off the wall and scaring our cats. Still, we ignore the noise, not sure what to do. Maybe we blame it on the neighbors. Finally, when it can be ignored no longer, life kicks the door open, rushes at us in a blaze of activity, and shouts “Here I am! Can you see me now? Your order has arrived. I am your lesson.”
It’s messy. There’s a broken door, and debris everywhere. Even the neighbors are peering in to see what calamity has occurred. We’re shocked. We can’t believe it.
After all of this we say “Jeesh…you could have just knocked.”
It doesn’t have to be hard. But for it to be truly easy, we have to listen very carefully.
Do you have your listening ears on?