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Helping A Friend and Being Responsible
The following story is true. This an example of how elusive the voice of our intuition can be. This is also a story of how quickly The Radio Voice can jump in, take control (?) of a situation, and make a mess. What was so amazing for me is that I TEACH THIS STUFF! So, here’s my story.
My friend Marilyn is a retired vocational school teacher. A co-teacher/friend, John R. Davis gave her a complete set of hand-made, linoleum block-cut color prints of the complete set of tarot cards. The designs and the prints are wonderful, each measuring 12” x 18”. Davis only made 12 complete sets of prints. Linoleum-block prints are very labor intensive to make, so having a complete set of 22 images is quite a collection.
When Davis gave the set to Marilyn, he told her that she could reproduce his art when she felt that the time was right, when she discovered the right way to reproduce the art, and that she make a donation to The Builders of The Adytum (BOTA). John passed on and Marilyn kept the prints in a portfolio case.
I was talking to Marilyn about my car art prints and it got her to thinking about herTarot prints. We decided that the first step would be to get the art scanned. The local Kinkos has an oversize scanner, but they wanted $30 per scan. Marilyn wasn’t too keen on the idea of leaving her prints at a store where they might be man-handled or lost. So, being the responsible adult I am, I said that I would be happy to scan her art.
So I went to Marilyn’s house to get the prints and we were talking about her project. We must have talked for 2 hours. It was getting late, so I headed for the door and Marilyn said, “Oh, come here. I want to show you something.” (this was my distraction point) I went back and Marilyn gave me a stack of Sotheby’s catalogs to take home. I said “Thanks.” and out the door I went.
A Few Days Later...
The following day, I thought, “I really should take Marilyn’s portfolio out of the van.” Then I got busy and forgot about the prints. Two days after I picked up the prints, I was out walking my dog and I thought, “I have to get those prints out of the van.” In that VERY MOMENT, I had a flash image of the portfolio leaning up against Marilyn’s sofa next to her front door. Then I thought (here’s where my Radio Voice started to kick in), “Are you sure you didn’t put them in the van? Hmmm... wait a minute... I left their house and got into the van... I remember putting something in the van... but I don’t remember seeing the portfolio in the back of the van... maybe I brought the portfolio in the house and left it in my studio...”
By now, anxiety is starting to build. I went to my loft/studio and looked around... no portfolio. I went to the van and looked around... no portfolio. “DAMN! Where did I leave that portfolio?!” Now my anxiety is really starting to build. So I started back at the beginning and went over the sequence of events and didn’t have a clue of where the portfolio was!
Meanwhile, my Radio Voice is REALLY starting to YELL at me! “OH;M’GOD... WHERE is that PORTFOLIO?!... Did someone see it in the van and take it?... OH NO... Did I leave it up against the side of the van when I was unlocking the door the other night and drove off with the portfolio laying in the street??? ... At least it hasn’t rained... OH MAN... I’m in BIG TROUBLE!!!”
So I went in to my wife Karen’s office and she could tell by the pie-eyed look on my face that something was wrong. “I think I lost Marilyn’s portfolio of Tarot prints... you know the complete set that her friend gave to her with the understanding that she could do something with them when she felt the time was right... YOU KNOW...THOSE PRINTS!!!
So we both looked around and the prints were nowhere to be found. I finally said., “I’m just going to have to call her and tell her the bad news.” By this time, I’m feeling like a total idiot. She didn’t want to entrust her set of prints to the kids at Kinkos, so she gave them to me and now I LOST THEM!
Owning Up - Gulp!
So I called their house, but the answering machine picked up. Well, I wasn’t going to leave a message like that! Then I thought, “Maybe, just maybe, the portfolio is laying in the curb where I parked two nights ago.” I knew it was a long-shot, but it was the only thing I could think of. (Take note that all of this dialog is the Radio Voice running the show.)
I got a flashlight and drove to Marilyn and Paul’s house.. Once I was there, I looked all around where I had parked and no portfolio, but I noticed that their cars were parked out front and the house lights were on. So, I thought about how I was going to explain that I LOST her set of prints, and went to the front door.
I knocked on the door, which set off their dog Lassie. I looked through the glass door and there sitting up against the sofa was the portfolio... just where I had left it two nights ago... JUST WHERE I SAW IT IN MY MIND’S EYE AN HOUR BEFORE WHILE I WAS WALKING MY DOG!
I was a washed with a flood of happy relief at seeing the portfolio. Marilyn’s husband Paul answered the door and I said,,”You have NO IDEA how happy I am to see THAT PORTFOLIO!” And Paul said, “Yea, I saw that you left it and figured you’d be back for it.” When Marilyn can downstairs she said, “Oh, I didn’t notice that you left the portfolio, otherwise I would have called you.”
We all have a good chuckle over my forgetfulness and I picked up the portfolio and said in my best commanding voice, “I’m taking the portfolio home now!”
As I was driving home it hit me. I had had a flash image of the portfolio leaning up against Marilyn’s sofa next to her front door when I was out walking my dog. The answer was right there and I didn’t catch it.All I had was that immediate flash of intuitive knowing and before I knew it, my Radio Voice kicked in and took over.
The following day I was telling Marilyn about my experience and she told me that one time she was driving on the interstate a little too fast. Suddenly, she heard a voice that said, “road block.” She looked ahead and there were no road blocks, so she maintained her speed. A few minutes later she saw flashing lights ahead where the State Police were pulling over speeders and she got a ticket. Had she backed off when she heard, “road block,” she wouldn’t have gotten a speeding ticket.
Epilogue:
If you are a baby-boomer, you might remember films from science class that used to close by asking, “Now What Have we Learned?” The Merraim-Webster Dictionary defines “intuition” as, “the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.” Hmmm... that’s exactly what happened to me when I was walking my dog and wondered where the portfolio was.
Many spiritual writers have told us about intuition and how it is something we all have as a gift from God. In “Conversations With God” by Neale Donald Walsch, God says, “I talk to everyone. It’s not a matter of to whom I talk to, but rather who listens.” My experience of intuition is that it always comes through as a whisper... a wisp of a sense of something that if difficult for the liner thinking mind to grasp. It’s like a slippery fish to the mind or a wisp of smoke - here... then gone. At which point the thinking mind jumps in and says, “Okay, now let’s get to the bottom of this ASAP.”
I don’t know that there is any magical way of always tuning into and paying attention to our intuition. The trick is to simply be alert to that whisper and always trust we are sensing. The hard part is not allowing the Radio Voice to grab the steering wheel and start driving the bus. This is why meditation is a good skill to have, as it can provide you with the experience of a quiet mind.
Here’s a fun experiment you an try sometime. Do this on a weekend when there aren’t too many demands on you time. Just for a day, live from your intuitive sense of what to do and when to do things. Just do the first thing that pops into your mind (so long as it’s not physically dangerous). If you find yourself thinking of someone, call or e-mail them right away. If you feel completed to read a particular book or watch a certain movie - do it.
Just follow your intuition for a day and see what kind of a day you have. Since you are on a spiritual path, I’m sure that you have had similar experiences to what I have shared with you here. Sometimes we don’t listen and BAM... we get a ticket. Other times we listen and drive by the road block.
I believe that our intuition is indeed a gift from The Creator. It’s like a sliver of what’s possible when we fully awaken. There’s a wonderful scene in the Star Wars film, “The Phantom Menace” where Qui-Gon Jinn, played by Liam Neeson, is admonishing his young apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi to "Feel, don't think -- use your instincts. Stay in the moment" Had I been living as a Jedi Knight, I would have stayed calm, knowing that nothing has happened yet, and simply called my friend and asked about her portfolio. End of story. But then, I wouldn’t have had the material to write this story.
Hmmm...
Shine on!
Scott
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