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“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell
That path in life, that destination, that skill you want to achieve, that comes back to your mind and tickles your mind, asking you to figure out a way to make it happen … its relentless persistence to hold your attention is an exercise in making you grow and step into what you are capable of doing, doing, discovering.
The analogy of the cave can be confusing because it can suggest a scary place to some – dark, scary and a trap that limits our freedom. But what Joseph Campbell points out is that where we find our treasure is often where we want to go, but are afraid to enter because there are so many unknowns about what we will find and how it will all unfold.
In times of struggle, whether directly affecting our own lives or we are aware of the difficulties experienced by the world at large, the prudent decision may seem to be one of conservation rather than expansion or growth. Apply the concept to any area – spending, dreams, business, family, any investment – it’s understandable why we can’t honor what our fears tell us to do. However, opportunities, and to use Campbell’s term, treasures, ask us to re-examine why we fear it if it remains endless for us to explore.
“Everything you ask for is on the other side of fear.” —George Adair
Let’s invest in the stock market as an example. The best time to invest is when the market is down. By doing this, we collect more shares for our money. The caveat that should not be ignored, however, is that we must invest wisely.
Often, intuition is talked about very simply. As someone who completely trusts my intuition, We’ve explored it here on the blog That we must first become students of our intuition and then consciously choose to tune into it so that we can truly trust it. Once we do that, we then marry our intuition with logic, or as Jonas Salk, the American medical researcher who developed the first successful polio vaccine and then chose no “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next,” he said, to patent it to maximize the benefits of the global community. Or as writer John Cord Lezman asserts, “Intuition is not the enemy, but the ally of reason.”
Working together for maximum benefit and the probability of a desired outcome – this is the clue to when to trust our intuition, when it is allied with reason. We don’t start sprinting without first stretching our body. We will not arrive at the airport for international travel without the required documents. To achieve all the preparation we need is available to us, we need to take the time to do so. This is how we marry logic with intuition. By doing so, we eliminate unnecessary stress, headaches, and obstacles or barriers to reaching the outcome we set our sails toward.
We know that our intuition is wise and worth paying attention to any time we start our journey towards our dreams, start a project without committing to the imagined (and expected) outcome of a project, or say yes without knowing how it will all come together, and after moving forward, the pieces fall into place without our cajoling. Action on our part without commitment shows trust in the inner compass, our intuition, which somehow knows that it will all work out and, indeed, this is the direction, this is the project, the skill, the steps even though we have never done them before.
Let me share with you a small example of knowing when to trust our intuition that happened recently here in my garden at Le Papillon.
After gardening in this place for six years now, there is an area, What I call the West Gardenwhich is completely landscaped with river rock (see photo here) Every year, I would weed between these stones, and every time, my hands would ache after doing this long task. Although it took me six years to finally come up with a solution, there was no promise or guarantee that my solution would come together as I envisioned it. But I suddenly imagined it this past month, and had to resist the urge to let my self-critic scold me for not thinking of the idea sooner. Solution: Why not remove all the small river rocks and create a new flower border to play with continuous planting? Already irrigated, this west-facing sloping flower bed will be perfect for spring bulbs (well-drained), summer annuals, including sunflowers, and will become an inviting garden every time I arrive or leave the house, as it is next to my garage.
But this is where I had to let go and move on. Trusting my intuition, I began to educate myself on how and where to deposit the rock after it was removed, and I learned it would be incredibly expensive. My best solution was to cross my fingers and toes that someone wanted it and would be able to pick it up (since I don’t have a car to do so).
I have a small area near my garage where I can place the rock and let it sit for a while without getting in my way, as I begin my removal project. For about 10 days or so, and concluding this past Saturday, I removed all the rocks in the bucket by hand. And here’s what I didn’t know when starting this project. I still can’t believe it. Within two hours of me finishing work on Saturday, my neighbor, with the help of his family (he’s in his 80s), took all my stones and added them to his landscape. As if the rock had been his all along.
To say I was tickled is an understatement (and oh so relieved). Although my neighbor initially asked about the rock and expressed interest in it, I didn’t understand that she wanted it all, but I insisted that if she wanted it, it was hers (there were many).
Now it’s my new garden area to play with – adding fresh compost, sowing seeds, and adding a herbaceous perennial hedge to keep the soil from sliding to the edge of the path.
My intuition knew things I couldn’t know for sure. The seed of the idea was planted for a reason, and I continue to be glad to ‘come up with it’, but I know I can’t take full credit. Well, my conscious self can’t take all the credit. My subconscious knew I had time to tend to projects, had ideas and know-how, and even knew neighbors who would be interested in my stones.
“Trust your intuitions. They are usually based on information filed just below the conscious level.” – Joyce Brothers
Once we have an idea, an idea that invites us to accept its offer, even if the details are not made clear up front, and we know that we are as prepared as possible, then we have to step into the “cave”. It is a step we take, knowing that there are details we cannot know, that sets in motion what Ralph Waldo Emerson described as “the vast world (coming) (to him)”.
“If the unmarried man plants himself irresistibly on his instincts and stays there, the great world will come to him.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
If we are looking for direction in our lives, if we are looking for what will fulfill us, what will sing and we will recognize the melody that was written for us, remember the wisdom of our intuition.
“Instinct is the nose of the mind.”
—Madame de Girardin, 19th-century French author and journalist who wrote under the pseudonym of Vicomte Charles de Launay
If you’ve ever been attracted to an idea – what to do, where to go, how to live, what to learn – that persists and comes to mind without the effect of getting approval or applause, and if the idea doesn’t seem rooted in anything you can logically explain (for me it would be my desire to travel and spend time in France), you’ll soon realize something real in your intuition. You respect that this concept is a unique invitation created for you and move towards it.
“Intelligence has nothing to do in the way of discovery. There comes a leap of consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you know not why or how.” -Albert Einstein
Over the years, I have had the privilege of hearing from many TSLL readers, readers who, when they first emailed me, were trying to figure out their journey, trying to understand the struggles that were happening, and now, those same people are living lives that they love and value deeply. Each is unique to them. A photographer and artist living in Paris, a conductor living in Paris, a widow living in a picturesque village in England with her new love, a military veteran living in Texas working in a career that honors her strengths, skills and compensates her handsomely. These are just a sampling of readers and members of the TSLL community bravely living their uniquely ordinary lives of luxury, and I am humbled and grateful to have a glimpse into their journey, a journey they have chosen and consciously engaged in, but none of them are promised. They had to believe that there was something in them that encouraged them to move forward without knowing for sure.
Is there something that keeps getting your attention and you haven’t taken it yet? Today, begin by exploring what will be the first steps to begin walking the Cave of Discovery. Your treasure awaits.
Have a wonderful start this first week in May and have a great journey!
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