The Universe Knows What It Is Doing (Or How Not Getting What You Want Can Sometimes Be A Wonderful Thing!)

The Universe Knows What it is Doing!

(or How Not Getting What you Want Can be a Wonderful Thing)

There are so many books out there teaching us how we can get what we want, with more conscious use of the law of attraction being the latest commercialized spiritual trend.

A few years back I watched an entertaining movie starring Eddie Murphy called "Holy Man" and the essence of his spiritual work in the film was attempting to facilitate happiness by helping people have what they want. The central character in the film eventually learned that happiness and getting what he thought he wanted were not necessarily the same thing at all!

I have experienced numerous moments of tremendous relief and gratitude looking back at times that the Universe did not deliver what I had desired so fervently at the time - as with the wisdom that is so much more effortless with hindsight revealed what an absolute mess it would have been for me and others had life gone in that direction!

Not only that, but I found that what Life eventually presented to me was more beautifully appropriate, wise and just plain funny, that I could ever have come up with in my small, demanding self.

It is a bit like being very hungry and seeing a McDonald's drive-thru and then being disappointed that it was closed only to arrive home a short time later to find an unexpected feast had been prepared in my absence! How unexpected and so much more wonderful that what I thought I wanted.

Of course this requires trust to be experienced with equanimity. I suspect that the Universe always brings us what we need (and that this is what we truly want in our hearts), whether we are throwing a tantrum or not, but our capacity to feel at peace when we cannot see what is happening, or understand why things don't appear to be working out as we think they should be at the time, really depends on how much we are willing to have faith.

With faith, which I call the heart's knowing, great appreciation of the beauty of Universal workings becomes possible.

You can just get a kick out of life, just laugh and know that it is brilliant, wise and funny, the eternal trickster and creative genius. And of course its so much more fun to dance with Life when you experience it in such a way - much less fun to dance with a staunch, cranky, with-holding, mean and denying Life. Bah humbug!

Once a client asked me how to trust.

After a moment of shocked silence as I contemplated this question (was there a formula I could provide for this man?) I realised that I could only provide a most unsatisfying answer - for him anyway, for me it really was the only answer I could provide truthfully.

So I told him that you just choose to do it.

It takes a right use of our personal and spiritual will to get there, to make the decision to trust and not to collapse into the fears that dominate so much of mass-consciousness of humanity (so much more evident during financial ebbs).

Trust isn't something that just happens mysteriously, we must decide, we must choose it.

Sometimes over and over again in a single hour or minute (and what a long, long minute that can be!), but it is our choice that grants us peace with our soul.

Each time we can give this gift to ourselves, life becomes more enjoyable, even if our small selves aren't absolutely convinced that its all OK, we can still have a part of us that is at peace and holds us through whatever changes or upheavals or just plain curious and strange events are taking place within and around us.

You could say that faith gives us the capacity to keep our heads, whilst all around us people are losing theirs.

As humanity as a whole is still learning how to handle the power of emotions and thoughts (sometimes we are a bit like kids playing unknowingly with potentially dangerous weapons!) this is a valuable contribution in itself.

So my wish and blessing for you is that you believe in your own courage to choose to trust and find peace and joy in that choice, opening up your heart to the Love and playfulness of Life, letting it direct your course and dance with you (without treading on your toes!).