12/9/11—Hoping for the Breath of Something Incomprehensible

Today's Draw Special Edition, Part 1: The Fly at the Window from The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. Have you ever prayed for one thing and gotten something different in response? Did you act like the-child-who-didn't-get-the-pony-they-wanted-for-Christmas about it? Are you hoping for the breath of something incomprehensible to show up in your life? 

OK. Today and tomorrow we're doing something completely different here at The Daily Draw. It's called bibliomancy. As many of you may know, tarot is only one tool in a psychic's bag of tricks. Bibliomancy is one of the many other options. And what bibliomancy means is opening a book—any book—to a random page with a question or intention in mind and getting a spiritual or psychic message from what you see on that page. 

Using something from The Book of Awakening is a little like cheating, because it's a book of spiritual lessons. So finding the wisdom on the page isn't hard. It came highly recommended from my good friend Oprah. As usual, though, I'll be putting my own imprint on what I found in the book. And what I found in that one entry is good enough for two entries here (what a value!), so I'm going to do another from this chapter tomorrow.

Basically, I just thumbed through the book and intuitively stopped on the October 1 entry in the book, titled "The Fly at the Window". This entry talks about how the antidote to fear and struggle is faith. We've talked about that a million times here, but there are a couple of interesting nuances in this entry. 

He defines faith as the willingness and courage to enter into the stream of what is. And in the moment we release ego and control and accept surrender, we and the stream are one. The energy of that sacred moment and God are the same. And our experience of it is grace.

Here is a snippet from his entry that captures the feeling of our struggle against surrender perfectly: 

"I remember one summer I was at the window when a fly near the latch was on its back spinning, legs furious, going nowhere. I thought to swat it, but something in its struggle was too much my own. It kept spinning and began to tire. Without moving closer, I exhaled steadily, my breath a sudden wind, and the fly found its legs, rubbed its face and flew away. I continued to stare at the latch hoping that someday, the breath of something incomprehensible would right me and enable me to fly."

Here's the thing: The "breath of something incomprehensible" can be as big as a life-threatening illness or as little as the exhale it took to right the fly. Just as you can relax your muscles by laying back, exhaling and letting go, you can relax your struggle against the wisdom and guidance of your higher power. Just by exhaling and going limp.

We move through life so certain we know better than our higher power when it comes to our lives. We count on its wisdom and power when we ask for something, then question it when they respond.

It's like the child who bemoans the fact they didn't get a pony so much that they neglect the hermit crab they *do* get. The child is not able to see the wisdom in learning how to care for a crab before it can care for a pony. And in fighting against the wisdom of the crab, they never lay the groundwork needed to own a pony.

Just as that child refuses to trust the wisdom of their parents, we don't trust the wisdom of our source. So we fight against what we're given, making it difficult for the source to move us toward what we say we want.

We've all heard this before. Sometimes it takes different words for us to get it, though. 

Surrender. Let go. Trust. And be the breath of something incomprehensible in your life.

COMING UP IN PART II: The connection between surrender and compassion.