MORE LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

"All ideas create some kind of ... feeling inside us..."

from THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time

The bird, insect and animal kingdoms were given instinct, without the intellect to question it. Lucky them! We too were given instinct, sometimes called "intuition" and because He has a bit of a dark sense of humour, or perhaps we are an experiment gone awry, He added the power to think. Thinking is supposed to place us at the top of the food chain and it has, but we have "thought" ourselves way down the food chain in terms of our ability to do what is in our own best interests. Let's look at this on a very personal level and leave the environmental, technical, political, scientific, medical stuff to another day.

Somehow, in our lack of wisdom (intelligence does not equal wisdom), humanity stopped reacting to its feelings and began to suppress them to the point where we don't even know what they are and if we do, someone is there to tell us to stop. We have successfully ignored the truth that exists inside us for so long that this unwillingness to follow our own truth has literally evolved to the point of ignorance. I use the word "ignorance" here in the sense that we "ignore" what we already know is the truth and we refuse to give voice to the most important gift that God gave us. Instinct/intuition is the most powerful force on earth as it moves millions, probably billions, of animals and birds from drought to a banquet of everything they require to survive and multiply and more. It is constant, consistent and unfailing in its power to create and recreate not just the necessities of life, but so much more abundance than its adherents will ever require to find fulfillment and happiness.

Let me drastically oversimplify how we can tap back into this gift that offers the one true road map to joy, success and happiness (or do some of us have different goals?). When we have an idea or thought, we automatically generate a "feeling" deep down inside us (some would say that this is where God dwells but you don't need to agree for this to work) and this feeling is the sign that guides our action. We need to be a little discerning here because when we were given the power to think, we started adding layers of "thought" over top of these feelings and thus, finding the truth has become much more challenging. We need to probe deeper than the thought level and find the kernel of truth hidden in the feeling that always makes itself felt physically and usually around the pit of our stomach. It may take a lot of practice to find this guidepost but each of us experiences it, each of us has it and each of us knows where to go to find it. If it's been awhile since you felt it, try looking at the things that change your emotional response and trigger a need to react. Pictures of babies, kittens and puppies, starlit night skies, smells of baking apple pies and roses in a vase, music that moves your soul or the sound of waves crashing to shore, an unanticipated hug or a cool breeze on a hot day - capture the essence of your response to these and so many more triggers, go a little deeper than the surface to discover the response in your core and we can reconnect with the gift that shows us the truth, the route and the joy of heaven on earth.