As I journey through my gratitude challenge. Memories from days gone by are surfacing, as well as ways I worked through previous challenges and stopped using the different strategies I had learned. One strategy I learned when I was 20 something. I took a new age class about transforming your life. I remember making a T chart; on the left side I listed the negative things I wanted to release from my life. On the right were the things I wanted to manifest in my life.
The instructions were to take something from the left side of my list to start on first. Because you needed to make room for your good by releasing something else. To do this - there was a three letter acronym. I think the one I used was PAM - Pray Analyze Meditate. I remember working on my list a lot with mixed results.
Like I said many of these thing keep resurfacing. So on a whim I googled the words to see what would come up. As I pondered everything I found, another acronym ALT - Ask Listen Take Action. Take action had been what was missing from my work years ago. It is still my bug-a-boo.
I have long known that energy multiplies on what you think about. I just never got how to fine tune it. I realize now that I have concentrated on the problems. Not enough time, not enough room, not enough... You get the picture. This lesson was recently beautifully demonstrated to me.
I had noticed what I thought was a big gray paper wasp nest hanging from a branch a couple of blocks from our house. I finally took the time to photograph the nest. It amazes me how they are able to build this substantial house with a papery material.
So after taking the pictures I came home to verify my belief that they were paper wasps. I discovered there are over 1100 species of paper wasps in the world but my nest was not one of them. I learned there are even ground wasps. Ugh! As I looked at information and pictures I confirmed that my nest was not made by paper wasps.
My second guess was yellow jackets. I found they often build nests in attics. There was a picture of a California yellow jacket that had almost filled the attic in one house. That picture looked like a nightmare to me.
Finally I looked up hornets. My picture looked like the ones on line. I read that the colony is at its biggest during the summer. They can reach over 700 workers per colony. Most die by the first hard freeze. Only the fertilized queens survive over the winter to restart the colony in the spring. The nest is made from plant fibers and saliva. Hornets and other wasps are known for being pugnacious.
As I began thinking about hornet nests, I began to notice them everywhere. In a two block area I counted over 5 nests. Then I looked up at the tree in my front yard. Yes, there was an immense nest there. When I stand under it and look up there appears to me an immense front door at the bottom of the nest. It looks like a big black hole. I used a flash to take the picture of it. When I looked at the picture the flash had illuminated the interior and I could see the cells inside the nest.
The instructions were to take something from the left side of my list to start on first. Because you needed to make room for your good by releasing something else. To do this - there was a three letter acronym. I think the one I used was PAM - Pray Analyze Meditate. I remember working on my list a lot with mixed results.
Like I said many of these thing keep resurfacing. So on a whim I googled the words to see what would come up. As I pondered everything I found, another acronym ALT - Ask Listen Take Action. Take action had been what was missing from my work years ago. It is still my bug-a-boo.
I have long known that energy multiplies on what you think about. I just never got how to fine tune it. I realize now that I have concentrated on the problems. Not enough time, not enough room, not enough... You get the picture. This lesson was recently beautifully demonstrated to me.
I had noticed what I thought was a big gray paper wasp nest hanging from a branch a couple of blocks from our house. I finally took the time to photograph the nest. It amazes me how they are able to build this substantial house with a papery material.
So after taking the pictures I came home to verify my belief that they were paper wasps. I discovered there are over 1100 species of paper wasps in the world but my nest was not one of them. I learned there are even ground wasps. Ugh! As I looked at information and pictures I confirmed that my nest was not made by paper wasps.
My second guess was yellow jackets. I found they often build nests in attics. There was a picture of a California yellow jacket that had almost filled the attic in one house. That picture looked like a nightmare to me.
Finally I looked up hornets. My picture looked like the ones on line. I read that the colony is at its biggest during the summer. They can reach over 700 workers per colony. Most die by the first hard freeze. Only the fertilized queens survive over the winter to restart the colony in the spring. The nest is made from plant fibers and saliva. Hornets and other wasps are known for being pugnacious.
As I began thinking about hornet nests, I began to notice them everywhere. In a two block area I counted over 5 nests. Then I looked up at the tree in my front yard. Yes, there was an immense nest there. When I stand under it and look up there appears to me an immense front door at the bottom of the nest. It looks like a big black hole. I used a flash to take the picture of it. When I looked at the picture the flash had illuminated the interior and I could see the cells inside the nest.
So how does the hornets nest tie into gratitude. Well - remember the other day I talked about being grateful for small problems. Being grateful changed the energy of my relationship with the problem. It also opened doors to strategies for changing how I behaved towards the problem. The last few days have uncovered many strategies that I could use. It had illuminated the interior and I could see there were no quick fixes.
Expressing gratitude for my problems is allowing the stuck energy to begin to move and change. It feels like I have stirred up a hornets' nest. I guess I'll just have to avoid getting stung.
I really love your stories, as well as the photos, and this wraps up things so well. I wonder if as we process that one little word, it helps come to new understandings because we've approached them differently? I like that you are stirring things up, & getting stung might push you into action for sure! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWell there is a good chance I'll get stung. Oh I used the peak app this weekend when we were on the road! Its interesting. Didn't some of those places had names.
ReplyDelete