Reaching the end of the line is vital to the spiritual student that wishes to awaken. What do I mean by “reaching the end of the line”? My front yard looks awful, even though I am paying for a lawn treatment service. The man in charge walked the yard for me, explaining why such and such an area of grass looked worse than others. In that sense, parts of our lives are always going to look worse than others. In this example, I will be happy when the yard looks nice and green. Of course they want to apply more chemicals that will make the yard look better.
You might notice that you complain about different things, assuming that you’ll be happy once you have worried enough. Wrong! We have to call the ego out for doing this to us.
Being a perfectionist, I have a long list of things that will make me happy once the problems are removed. I am sure you feel this way as well.
Some things we have no control over, obviously. We have no control over when we are born and when we will die. This is simply out of our hands. The Tao flows as it will, not as we will from our egos.
As I get older, the less control I have. I just don’t have the energy to control things tightly; it never contributed to my happiness when the lawn or my hair looked perfect. So I might as well. 1. Let go of outcome.
2. Pray daily to accept the will of what God has ordained.
3. Do the best you can and then turn it over to God.
These 3 things are things we all fall short of.
A long holiday weekend begins today. My vow is to read this essay daily and see how capable I am of reaching the end of the line as far as my will is concerned. It never worked anyway.
New inner task: Seeing how many things are frustrating us because the outcome is not in our hands. Nothing is, in actuality. Everything is just happening whether you will it or not.
Vicki Woodyard
Great lesson today Vicki! I have been working on this more intensely these last few months. A select few have recently cautioned me to step back and try not to micromanage everything so much. I absolutely know that control is not in my realm, yet that nagging ego is nattering away telling me to do this or say that…in an effort to sway an outcome. Like you suggest; just let go and let God.
Love and peace to you dear friend,
Tami
It is just the ways the ego works in all of us, not just in some of us. I am making a list of the main things that take away “My peace I give you; not as the world gives, give I unto you.”
I love this Vicki.
Remembering is simple and difficult. Well, we think it’s simple until the time that we actually remember and realize; there were at least fifty occasions already in which we forgot in that one day. Our egos have no preference for remembering what we need to remember. With God’s grace, we let go and do not indulge in blaming ourselves for our habitual forgetfulness. Instead, we can speak our gratitude to God that peace and love is truly always there when our will is ignored and dropped away.
“we actually remember and realize; there were at least fifty occasions already in which we forgot in that one day.” Amen, Ruth!