Following Davidji’s suggestion that we set an intention each month, my July intention is to embrace uncertainty and change. I am moving back to Phoenix the middle of the month. This is the result of a long process of inquiry using my intuition. My intention is to embrace this change. I intuitively know it is my highest good and in my best interest if I am going to lead a meaningful and purposeful life. However, that does not always relieve the anxiety of such a life change and the uncertainty it brings.
One of my spiritual teachers, Alan Cohen, suggests: “whenever I step forward to claim a big new “yes,” all of my old no’s come back to greet me”. This is what he calls the “dance of the ego”. He goes on to suggest when we are in fear, we are aligned with the ego and begin the “dance with the ego which is endless ruminations on whether change is good.
Gilda Radner, a comedian who was on Saturday Live in the late 80s and who died of cancer at an early age in her autobiography, “It’s Always Something”, made the following comment:
“I wanted a perfect ending…
Now, I’ve learned the hard way that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear, beginning, middle, and end.
Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next…Delicious ambiguity.”
Dr. David Simon, MD of the Chopra Center added this:
Uncertainty is an essential component of a miraculous life. It is the delicious weaving of intention with surrender that keeps us perpetually awake and connected to the creative force of the universe. We get clear on what we want to manifest, stay in present moment, and observe with conscious curiosity what unfolds.
Davidji in his guided meditation “Release Fear and Say Yes to Life” on Insight timer teaches:
“Risks must be taken because the great hazard in life is to risk nothing. A person may avoid suffering and sorrow but a person cannot learn, cannot feel, cannot grow, and cannot love without taking risks.”
Chained by certitudes, you are only a slave.
Only a person who takes a risk is free..”
Change requires the courage to release old narratives that no longer serve and the willingness to step out of the comfort zones that offer familiarity. I can embrace change and laugh as life shows me everything I need to see, feel and experience as time continues on. So, in July I will go with the flow and embrace the uncertainty of this change in my residence. Also, I will remember the wise admonition of my teacher Alan Cohen: Confusion is the last stop on the train to clarity.