Unfold Your Wings and Watch Life Take Off

Part 2 - Your Potential

Your Potential Is Illogical
(when judged by outer criteria)

The journey is directed from deep within. Guidance comes from the call. Inner guidance often leads us to make decisions that are not to our material advantage and are materially unproductive, but will yield spiritual fruits. When following our destiny we are often asked to give up situations that benefit us materially, so that we might gain other inner benefits like the presence of more peace and love in our lives.

Just recently, in my own life, I felt drawn to close down my business and go into retreat by withdrawing from the world and spending more time sitting quietly in my own home. I followed this guidance and as a result found great depths of inner peace and contentment. This book was also written as a result of that period of withdrawal. I have a friend who recently sold his "proper house" in a local town and moved to a mobile home so that he could fulfil his calling to live in the village community where he works. He has felt much greater levels of contentment since he has made this move. I frequent a local vegetarian café. The owner gave up a lucrative job in a major corporation to pursue his love of cooking. The café only yields a minimal income.

	UNFOLDING YOUR WINGS
If you feel drawn to a project that is important to you but may yield a smaller income, trust that you will find a way to have your needs met while pursuing your project.

A materially unproductive activity I felt drawn to, was to take off most days for a walkabout. When on walkabout I would wander for hours aimlessly. There was no material benefit to this walking. I was not trying to get anywhere. I was not doing it to become fit. I wasn't doing it to enjoy the scenery. I wasn't following a pre-planned route. I was just doing it. I did not know why I was doing it. In time I came to realize that going on walkabout was helping to break-up my rigid ways of relating and thinking and increasing my sensitivity. We don't always have to know why we are doing something for the activity to yield benefits. What is important is that we feel guided do it.

Sitting in silence "doing nothing" is a materially unproductive activity. People in our western materialistic society find this particularly difficult to cope with. I often hear parents say to their children,

"Don't just sit there – do something".

From an early age we are indoctrinated to be active "doing something". "Doing nothing" is regarded as unproductive, irrelevant and for wasters. As we progress through school, college and work, our lives are increasingly filled with things for us to do.

When I worked as a management consultant and was involved with the business community in Northern Ireland, the first thing business-people would ask me was "Are you busy?" I felt an obligation to say yes, even if I wasn't. Then one day I was asked the usual question, when I was out at a convention. I wasn't particularly busy and I decided to experiment and said "No, I'm not busy at present." Well you could have heard a pin drop. The group of business-people I was with did not know how to cope with my answer. They parted and drifted away. To them not being busy was a sign of failure.

Many of us reach such a state of inner compulsion, that we cannot exist for a minute without some sort of noise or other activity to distract us from our inner silence. When we are busy, engaged in activity, with no counter balancing periods of inner quiet and reflection, we are running away from our own healing. It is during periods of inner quiet that our pain and angst will surface to be healed. By sitting silently, we find that presence that makes our lives truly meaningful.

Be still and know.

Pursuing our potential is illogical, but only if judged by outer criteria. Following our potential cultivates our highest qualities. If we value our inner world, the world where we can nurture peace, harmony, freedom and love, then pursuing our potential makes perfect sense.

Envoi

I give a loan to a friend who cannot repay it.
My other friends do not understand, but I understand.
I change to part-time work and pursue my love of sculpture.
My friends do not understand, but I understand.
I spend the day mowing my elderly neighbour's lawn.
My friends do not understand, but I understand.

The inner call guides me to live from the heart.
I am happy to oblige.