I’m a fairly curious person about this world in which we all live and love coming across things that I didn’t know – like that the name of this animal in this photo outside of my house today is katydid. The world seems to me to be a tremendously magical place and I know that it’s my innocent wonder about Nature’s creatures and their lives that makes it so. When I discover something new there’s usually an “aha” moment of delight that takes hold of me and I marvel that I’m gaining knowledge about something that moves me deeply. While I am also adding to my experience of the world in large and small ways it never seems to me that I’m “learning” which by definition is either a) – The act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill or b) – Knowledge or skill gained through schooling or study. That sounds like a pain in the ass to be perfectly honest and I freely admit that my patience or lack of it coupled with a fear of “how hard will this be” gets in the way as a human when I’m actually in a structured academic setting. I much prefer to be a bit wildish in my learning if I have to call it that and I’ve come to a different perspective on this whole learning thing that not only feels better but actually resonates with me. It’s called “Re-Awakening” and is a concept widely adopted by those in metaphysical circles.
When we awaken – as in the morning – everything is new. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow hasn’t gotten here yet and there’s a whole 18 or more hours in front of us to do with however we choose. Now, that’s fabulous! Placed within the context of each human experience being one planned stop in the course of a soul’s evolution it’s not such a leap to make to consider that your soul, at least, has perhaps been on Earth before. And so, just like for me today with the katydid, it’s easy to see how I certainly could have experienced this before – in another lifetime. So that same feeling of wonder and connection with this small creature that arose within me today is a re-awakening of a prior experience – one that this current human experience hadn’t yet gifted to me until today. It’s as if there’s a sense of uncovering and rediscovering precious pebbles of thoughts, emotions, and physical experiences that are buried in the confines of the soul just waiting to be tapped in the shoulder to spring to life and delight once again in the present moment. We often get bogged down in the notion that we have – sigh – lessons to learn here on Earth and that – sigh – we HAVE to learn them and – sigh (which is a lot of sighing, I agree) – they’re LESSONS vs. delightful reawakenings. How much better would it be if we considered the total of our lives to be reawakened moments – one right after the other and simply basked in the delight that came with each “aha” moment? I totally agree that my human experience gained knowledge and skill today – I learned the name of one more of Earth’s inhabitants, I stayed a respectful distance away so as not to frighten him and we engaged in his space of energy, one heart to another, for several minutes. He turned slowly to face me while I made a short video of him on my phone and even stretched his legs and antennae for his film debut. What was re-awakened in my soul was the knowledge that especially on those days when the light seems dim and my path a bit foggy I can absolutely count on a messenger of the living world around me to come and offer support and unconditional love.