Over the past four years or so, I have done a fair share of pet/house sitting and I quite enjoy it. Let's face it, with an adult child and their partner living at home, this gives us all some space and time and sometimes, this is exactly what is needed. Don't get me wrong, I love my children - deeply, lovingly and unconditionally, and we have beautiful relationships, however I am sure that I get on their nerves as much as they get on mine at times. So this time and space can be quite what the doctor ordered!!
During my most recent stint, I was looking after one chook (she is a beautiful chook) and a lot of plants. Now, I don't have the greenest of thumbs so needless to say, I had been literally stressing out about these plants and so was giving them a lot of love. Most of them were fruits and vegetables - so pretty important that I didn't kill them!! The chook was happy just wandering about the back yard, not wanting anything and seemingly not expecting anything. Phew!
I really enjoyed wandering about the garden, watering the plants and literally watching them grow and present their gifts of food and there had been quite a little bounty presented to me. I learned a lot about them during these quiet moments. You see, I once lived with someone who had told me things - things that they had me believing - about growing fruit and vegetables and this recent experience had shown me that what I had been told was complete BS! I had always wanted to grow my own fruit and veg and now I am going to. Another BS myth busted!! Being self sustaining seems to be becoming more popular and makes a whole lot of sense to me. More on that later.
I am not sure what it was about this particular house sitting venture - right from the get go it felt different. I was used to having cats and dogs mostly - yes I have had chickens before, fish too and birds - it was just so quiet this time. No noise, no animals to run and greet me when I got home, no conversation or company while watching TV, just me and the chook when I was watering the plants.
Now I quite enjoy my own company, I am actually quite introverted, so quite time and space is important to me. Having said that, I also love being around people - maybe I'm not as introverted as I once was?? Anyway, I digress.....
Maybe it was that it was quiet, maybe it was spending time with those plants, maybe it was simply the energy at the time, who knows, but I seemed to be more in my head than ever before. Bloody hell - it was a noisy racket in there! Upon realising that - my thought at the time was "what the actual fuck, seriously?, you gotta do something about this"
For those of you who know me, I am not afraid of doing work on myself and I've done a shit tonne of that - and will continue to do so - I quite enjoy seeing what I can achieve and who I can become along the way. I am someone who meditates regularly, dives into my heart space, feels my feelings and processes them through my body, takes time out when I need it, gets massages, reflexology, has floats, moves my body regularly, elevates my state with music and affirmations and have really come to love myself and who I am. It's taken a lot of healing and a long time to get here. So you can imagine my surprise when I noticed these pesky thoughts!!
This quietness had made me more aware of my thoughts and the things I had been telling myself. Fuck!! Fuck - it was not good. I had better change some of those things right now!!! Energy goes to where, and what we focus on and then momentum builds from that point and then whamo!! we get what we were focusing on. Yep - better get onto changing that right now I thought!
Spending time with those plants had me wondering about what my inner landscape really looked like, how else I could self sustain myself? I had been doing all the things and yet it appeared that there were these automatic thoughts that had been lurking in the background. What else did I need to do?
Wait!...... I was already doing what else I needed to do!!! I was embracing the quietness. That was exactly what I needed to do and I had been doing it without realising that this was exactly what I needed. Funny how the Universe puts you right were you need to be and then offers you exactly what you need! If I hadn't accepted this partic
ular opportunity to house sit - in this case - plant sit - I would never have heard those pesky automatic thoughts. .
This quietness had been giving me the opportunity to gain a new perspective of my inner world - to see my rough and raw edges - edges that I had been blind to. Edges and messages that I hadn't been able to hear for all the noise. Noise that I hadn't even realised was playing out in my inner world. This quietness was exactly what I had needed to heal yet another layer. Excellent!
So my questions to you are....
Do you ever allow yourself to embrace the quietness?
To really hear what is going on inside you? For you I mean. Not quietness for others comfort or surface quietness. It goes beyond mindfulness, beyond meditation. I mean real deep genuine quietness for self.
You do know that doing this is the very difference between what you attract and what you repel right?
What I learned is that sometimes, we can be doing all the things and still those pesky automatic thoughts are quietly playing in the background. It's ok - so long as we catch them.
Quietness people - embrace quietness. I mean real genuine quietness. Quietness where there is nothing and no one - just you, nature and quietness. Give yourself a chance to be heard. Truly heard. It is from this place that you can change your life and create magic.
Love Life Big
Big love
Lu xo