On The Movement of Spirit

"You never know what direction the wind blows from or where it blows to." 
~ Theo Erik 

My friend and spiritual mentor, Theo, shared this with me 30 years ago.  He was making an analogy between the wind and the movement of spirit.  I have been considering his words for the last three decades and here is what has become clear to me. 

It would be nice to have certainty about life, but we don't have a birds eye view of life.  We can't survey the situation of life from high above. We very often don't have all the information we need to make sense of things when they happen.  Sometimes it can take time (and often quite a long time) to put things into perspective.  What first appears as chaos may, in hindsight, actually be order.  

Consider for a moment a giant thing of chaos like a tornado or a hurricane.  Yes, it tears through everything in its path and causes havoc, but it also follows the laws of nature.  In the chaos, there is also order.  We don't fully understand it and with time we might.   It was not that long ago that Newton sat under the apple tree.  Before Newton the three laws of motion were as opaque to us as hurricanes and tornados are today.  We can predict them a little better, but even with the best computer modeling we don't know exactly where they will go, how much rain they'll drop, or which town they'll rip through.   

When something happens we don't understand (for good or ill) it seems to come like a bolt out of the blue.  We are often taken by surprise, but what if the context in which we hold these events was not chaos, but the natural order of spirit working in our lives?  And yes, the analogy with a hurricane or a tornado is apropos.  Spirit is a disruptive influence on the workings of the world.  Like a hurricane it is an influence that is an order of magnitude higher.  I suspect the reason is that so many of us are tone deaf to that "small and persistent voice."  

However, what if like Newton, we are able to sit and perceive the inner workings of the universe?  

What would it be like if our relationship to spirit were like that?  To be attuned, awake, aware, conscious and looking for which way the wind  blows? 

Here are my queries on the working of spirit: 

• Am I willing to be quiet and listen? 
• Am I open to think that I (little humble me) could be the recipient of a message? 
• In what context do I hold the ebbs and flows of life?  
  • Are life's happenings random and unpredictable? 
  • Could it be that life is providing spiritual direction? 
• What tools do I have to navigate these gusts of spirit? 
  • If I am a "spiritual sailor" how might I adjust my rudder and my sail? 
  • Might there be a way to perceive the movement of spirit and be a more adept navigator of life?

Joseph Olejak

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