by Alan McAllister, CCHt PhD-phys
There are many ways to consciously talk with the Universe. Day dreaming and prayer are perhaps two of the most common. Meditation is about listening.
I have found that if I’m paying attention I’m always in a conversation with the Universe. I once had a verbal conversation that manifested through three different people over the course of a week. Much of the time I’m not really paying attention. I figure much of it is a “keeping connected” sort of dialogue, like you might have with a good friend. This may be more about feeling tone than words. There are other levels which are about noticing cool things, or points of interest, which may be fun without having greater significance.
Then there are the messages, the syncronicities, the questions and answers that shape and guide the course of my life. This is also ongoing, but at various levels of importance or significance. It comes through conversation with my beloved, or my best friend, with spiritual guidance, animals, trees, or a seemingly random phrase overheard at the grocery store.
It is often in the form of questions and answers. I have questions: Who am I? What should I be doing with my life? When will I meet my beloved? are at the top of the list. On the other hand: What does my body want to eat right now? or which route should I take to get to the store? are common place examples. In between I often check in on the timing of something I might say to a friend, or if I should voice it at all.
I often ask these questions consciously, sometimes out loud, or in ceremony. Other times I’m half conscious of a question, “I wonder what is ready in me to complete and release?” which may feel like an idle musing. The Universe “hears” it all. And answers in a timely manner and appropriate way. “Timely” and “appropriate” can be a bit flexible though. Occasionally I think the Universe asks me questions. These may be dramatic, “Are you ready to die?” or more subtle, “Is this the trail you want to take today?”. Sometimes answers may feel like questions (especially when the original question was vague) “Is this sort of what you had in mind?”
Many of the experiences we have during the day may be answers to questions. Sometimes many years old. The Universe has a different sense of time than we do. Some say it has no sense of time. This complicates sorting out what question an answer is responding to.
Knowing that an image from your mediation or dream, a piece of conversation, a line in a book, the hawk circling over head has information for me is one thing. Understanding what it is and what it is relevant to is another. I have learned doing readings to trust the images, words and feelings, but the meaning level can vary widely from obvious to tenuous. The more obscure it is for me often the more meaning it has for the person I’m doing the reading for. Dream interpretation can be similarly fluid.
Five years ago I went on a journey to the Pacific Northwest. On my journey I had many experiences that stuck out a bit from the rest of the day: meditations, dreams, conversations, meetings and events. Some of them had a clear meaning for me at the time they occurred. Others had the feeling of import but no clear meaning. Some were lost in the background of the day.
Later in my trip things happened that gave context to an earlier communication, or answered a question I had asked, explicitly or implicitly.
When I came home I wrote it all out and more noticed more meanings. More dots connected. I also had experiences after I had “finished” the journey that explained or shed light on specific pieces. I found goose feathers outside Vancouver and happened to go to an outdoor writing workshop the day after I got back, but didn’t put these events together with writing a book until a ceremonial piece the next year. The Universe gave me the quills to write about my journey.
I have rewritten the material several more times and each time more clarity comes. It was the third time through that I understood the themes of my four days in Vancouver relative to the deeper intentions I had set. I’ve learned that sometimes I have to clear a few things out before I am ready to receive an answer, or to understand it. Some of that clearing can appear to be quite unrelated to the original question.
An even larger piece was that I hoped to meet someone special in Vancouver. She came to me in my dreams, but I hadn’t met her in this life yet, so had no clue that I was meeting a living person. A few months after returning to Boulder, I did meet her but didn’t realize she was my beloved or the lady in my dreams. It was two years later before we connected more deeply and both realized that we had been looking for each other a long time. This year I am rewriting the journey again and I realize that other dreams on that trip were introductions to aspects of my beloved that I have come to appreciate since we came together. Even though I didn’t catch all the initial responses to my desire, the Universe arranged for us to meet anyway. Today I realize that I did meet my beloved where I had hoped to, just in dreamtime rather than waking life.
Some events and dreams are still a mystery and I am content that they may always be. The Universe will try again if I completely miss an important point. Other meanings grow and deepen each time we revisit them because we have grown and deepened. Learned more, learned less, understood more; the context keeps changing and our understanding keeps changing.
It’s OK if it takes time to understand something. The Universe is patient. If we are paying attention it might even be this life time.
(© 07/2017)
