This wild idea
Question: So, today is the last day of August. Tomorrow is the 3-month mark — 3 months since I submitted my book to some publishers who said they generally take 3 months to respond. I already know where I'm messing myself up here. There are all kinds of reasons why I may hear nothing from them tomorrow. I don't seem to be able to let go of the assumed linear nature of things. Any insights?
Answer: What's the problem here?
Question: It's that I'm making no progress realising my goals… same ol': where is it; why isn't it here yet; what am I doing wrong; what should I be doing to expedite it… etc.
Answer: Ah. That again. These are deeply ingrained habits of thought among humans. Certainly within you. In the process of thinking about them, expecting things to happen a certain way, fretting about them, they become self-realising and self-perpetuating.
I hear you say, “Yes, yes; I know all that.” But do you? Do you really? This fixation on a certain thing happening on a certain date or after a certain period of time sets you up for disappointment. It practically guarantees it, in fact.
Yes, you could be offered a publishing deal tomorrow. Or you could be offered something entirely different. Tomorrow may be a very quiet day or it may be full of surprises.
Regardless of what happens tomorrow or the next day or this very moment, your response to it — how you feel about it — is what matters most.
Question: You're setting me up to accept disappointment, more rejection of my work or perhaps worse: more indifference, more silence, of not even bothering to send a response, not even bothering to say “No, thanks.”
Answer: Ah, it is you who are bracing for failure, you who are girding your loins against more disappointment.
Question: Yes, that's true. I've been staving it off pretty well for the past 3 months, with the occasional slide into depression, but the thought is often there, at the edges of my awareness, waiting to creep back in like a oppressive fog or an icy wind. I haven't yet learned how to drop these thoughts and replace them with ones I do want. Is It really just a matter of shifting my focus?
Answer: It is. It really is as simple as that.
Think of it this way: the ideas you're wanting to share with others (about happiness and creativity and the animals you love) come from a much bigger place than a solitary human mind. The time is here for these ideas to flourish.
These ideas are much bigger than a single human. They are coming to you and coming to others through you. Just don't block them, and they will flow freely to a most receptive audience who is not only ready for them but craving them, whether or not they know what it is they're craving.
So, don't sweat it. Not the reception nor the timing. Continue to be a co-operative component, a receptive vessel, a willing scribe, an enthusiastic teacher, and let the rest take care of itself.
This thing is much bigger than yourself. You don't have to do it on your own. In fact, if you try, you'll block it, keep it too small, too proprietary.
Let it flow. Let it go where it wants and become what it will. This wild idea wants to live! Let it run wild.
[The next day…]
Question: Here we are: the fateful day, and coincidentally the first day of spring! Any words of wisdom for my wobbly mind?
Answer: Just more of the same. Don't sweat it. Just keep enjoying your day, doing what you love, going where you will, thinking as you like. It'll all turn out just fine.
Just keep enjoying your day, doing what you love,
going where you will, thinking as you like.
It'll all turn out just fine.
The Game
hide seek find laugh
Christine King
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