Hear Me Universe #47. Shares (again)

It’s here, again! How could I NOT have seen it before now? Before writing these posts one-by-one, I had never noticed that I repeated “shares.” I wrote my list—all 100—in nearly one sitting. I arrived at about #80 in about 40 minutes, just allowing whatever arrived in my consciousness be what I wrote down next. The last 20 items took a day or so, mainly because I felt that the remaining ones were even a little more precious. Forgetting that I had written “shares” just 25 items earlier shows that I was allowing whatever I heard in my head be what I wrote down.

When creating your love list:
1. write from your heart’s desire
2. write without self-judgment
3. write while feeling how you want to feel in that ideal relationship
4. write without editing
5. write with curiosity about what shows up

And, if there were to be a repeat, “shares” is a perfect duplicate.

Hear Me Universe #46. Finds Ways to Calmly Solve Problems

There’s an energy I desire in my life: in a moment of chaos or anxiety or interruption, I believe in taking a deep breath, assessing the options, and moving with ease into the storm. I knew Craig was a match to this energy the first time we traveled together. We joke in reference to this trip as our having paid for 2 vacations while only taking 1. It was the classic story you likely have heard: we missed the boat. 

Our scheduled cruise ship left without us on a winter’s day that we couldn’t get from here to there. Not knowing this until we were at our origination airport for check in, we took in what the agent was apologizing for: “storms...no plane...it will be tomorrow at earliest....” Despite the energy around us—a lot of travelers upset and arguing and expressing dissatisfaction, Craig and I both reacted in the same way, thanking the agent for his apology and asking this question: “what’s the soonest we can arrive in a warm climate?” The agent re-booked us for the next morning, giving us the day to plan a new vacation. No amount of complaining would change the situation. 

Were we happy to have missed the boat? No, we really wanted to take a mid-winter cruise. Was it easy to forfeit the money already paid (no, we didn’t buy trip insurance...) and invest resources in another vacation? No, so we weren’t extravagant in our plan-B. Was our time in the sun absolutely lovely? Yes, we eased into it the next day and laughed about our “2 for 1” vacation.
 

Hear Me Universe #45. Optimist

Optimism is a choice and in naming this ideal characteristic, I invited in someone who believes that negative events are temporary, limited in scope, and manageable. At the same time, optimists’ heads aren’t buried in the proverbial sand: they search for ways to help the survivors, or believe there is a cure to cancer, or work to innovate so that the broken systems are better. As Winston Churchill’s famously said, “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Optimism is living in a spirit of what is possible and, when we begin to look for possibilities in the world around us, we FIND them.

Hear Me Universe #44. Risk-taker

I’ve heard Jim Carrey’s emphatic wisdom: “you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

That’s risk-taking, to me, and I desired to share my life with another soul who—despite the fear and failure and frustration and uncertainty on the other side of the risk—was motivated by the belief that there is GREAT reward in leaping. Leaping into the unknown with a knowing that the jump has so much possibility.

Two risk-takers together amplifies the energy of each individual—like being on a team of like-minded players. And, not all "risks" have to be as grand as cliff-diving; sometimes, being a risk-taker is saying words that feel important but vulnerable.

Hear Me Universe #43. Is a Thinker

Someone who wrestles with what’s grabbling him, open-mindedly examines the big picture, and seeks understanding—yes, a thinker. It takes self-trust and a desire to live this life beautifully. It takes contemplation to make meaning out of this complex, stunning world. It requires active pursuit of understanding to write your own life’s script. As

Yann Martel wrote in “Life of Pi”—

“The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?”

The ability to think about our thinking—metacognition—was written about by Aristotle and many other philosophers since. It’s a unique, human trait, and maybe our most powerful one. I sought partnership with someone who desired to think deeply and seek understanding and meaning.

Hear Me Universe #42. Not a Fighter

This is the only item on my list I wrote in opposites—a characteristic I did not desire. Maybe there was another way to state it, but I truly wanted to ask the universe for this: someone who is NOT a fighter. Someone who isn’t wired to go for the fight, the disagreement, the argument. Someone who IS wired to listen, to ask questions, to understand, and to speak from the heart.

Any time in my life—and there have been some of those times—I’ve shown up ready for a fight, ready to allow my trigger to be tripped so that I can make my point, it’s rarely turned out the way I wanted. My anger got in the way of my message; my emotion took center stage and left the meaning unseen in the wings.

And, haven’t you had that response to an angry message—you can’t even hear it, because it’s covered by rage?