Observe, observe, observe

Often times, in my life and in others I see the hand of effort in many things that we do. Force and effort creates results is what I learned growing up.

Yet the more I am attracted towards a life with more peace, love and contentment and, ultimately, a life with more awareness and consciousness, I look at life differently. I actually looked at life, to begin with. I started to observe myself and the way my mind worked. What I noticed, and continue to notice at ever subtler levels, is that the most profound things happen when I lift not a finger.

The most profound things happen when the sense of a ‘me’ ‘doing stuff’ is dropped. What did that require of me? To gently let go, let go of trying, let go of figuring stuff out, and observe and watch a greater dance bubble to the surface, and what an amazing dance that it is. It is the dance that moves the universe, the planets and the sun, and the energy that creates, maintains and destroys everything we see. It is the life force that is all through nature. Sometimes it may feel that this force is destructive, and yet it is happening. 

We can’t deny that things HAPPEN. Death happens. Death of relationships, death of bodies, death of jobs, death of ‘things’ in general, and when I finally stopped resisting what was naturally occurring, and sat back and became comfortable in that, for the first time I felt connected to what was happening, instead of being slung around and bruised in the storm of it all. I felt connected in that I could observe it. What a privileged seat to be given, like a front row seat to the World cup soccer. "Observe, observe, observe," one of my favourite writers Anthony De Mello once said.

The more you observe, and the more familiar you become with this way of being and of living, the more enjoyable it becomes. If you think back on your life, many of the greatest times have been when you have let go and allowed things to happen. Isn’t that what holidays are all about? How about doing it all the time? I always thought "Yeah, but there is so much to do!" or "That’s a bit lazy, someone’s got to do the work around here," Yet you let go to a much greater force that has so much energy, vitality and capacity to do it for you! It’s kind of like the doing of life comes from the being of life.

Then hey presto, you start experiencing the magic of life, you actually see what is truly going on. You actually listen with awareness. You hear what people are really saying between the words. You experience the beauty of nature all the time. You see opportunities and excitement where before you feared the change or tried to control the outcome. You may notice things in your life that you never had eyes to see before because you were always in your head.

And the subtleties of life continue to unfold, on ever greater levels. In child-like wonder you are discovering the universe all the time.