Bird's eye view

I had two synchronistic conversations today that have reminded me of something that I hadn't exactly forgotten but that wasn't at the forefront of my awareness this week. It is that when things feel 'impossible' down here in the physical realm, I need to move my perception up to the level of my higher self and look again. From 'up there', it seems easier to let go of the everyday nitty-gritty that is filling me with angst or frustration, and see what we're really all here to do: love and learn and heal.

If it sounds so easy, then why do I forget it all the time? Maybe because it's the duality of this planet that makes us forget - and we're submerged in it. It may be that it's what makes this planet such a privilege to live on but it has its down side! I remember noticing a saying that was posted on the bulletin board over a copy machine when I was in high school. It said, "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that your original intention was to drain the swamp." Trite but true. To remember what's really important, I have to feel it. Every once in a while, the Universe sends along a reminder and I feel the jolting 'ah-ha' of recognition. Thank God for those moments because they give me hope and help me keep my sanity.

I woke this morning - early - to the noise of the painter, AGAIN! He has been scratching around at the window frame and the outside walls around my bedroom every morning for days now, and then, another morning, he was hosing the woodwork on the outside of the house, right behind the head of my bed. And just when I thought he must surely be finished, today he was sanding over my head, in the bedroom upstairs. Since it's raining, he has moved on to the inside of the house this week. A little after ten o'clock, I gave up and got up.

Just before lunch I took out some recycling and he was in the laundry room scraping paint off the bedroom door. I said hello and before I knew it, he was pouring his heart out to me about what has been going on in his life - mother dying (devastating), without a will (messy) that his sister has taken him to court over (equally devastating), because she wants him to move out of the house he had shared with his mother, and sell it, and he doesn't want to lose his home as well as his mother. Betrayal all round. Hurt feelings and wounded egos and the wrenching pain of losing loved ones - living and dead - not to mention the leftover, unresolved issues from a childhood filled with violence, alcohol and abuse.

In short, he needed to talk and he needed to talk to me. Why? Because he wanted to talk about the 'spiritual' side of it all - the higher-self level - the big picture. As I reminded him of what he needed to hear, I realized that I needed the reminder myself. And then I understood why he had been so annoying for almost two weeks: he wanted me to pay attention to him but he didn't know it consciously. This is the stuff I'm here to do - paid or not. It only matters that I do the important work. Everything else will work itself out. And now the noise he makes probably won't bother me any more. That tends to happen once I get the message.