Looking for signs around you is the most natural act in the world. Humans have always used omens or signs to figure out the world around them.
Examples abound of how our ancestors used signs to understand their world. Our seafaring ancestors needed all the help they could get to navigate the seas. Birds, for example, indicated that land was nearby. An equally important divination tool was to use the stars and planets to understand the world. Astrology was the study (ology) of stars (astro).
Our ancestors paid careful attention to the land, seas, skies, and also the seasons, connecting with the rhythms of their times. The clouds were seen as a kind of mirror in which people could see themselves and receive messages.
In our current day, we can still benefit from using our intuition and paying attention to how it expresses itself in the signs around us. Perhaps you are driving and thinking about a certain situation. Have you noticed certain license plates around you that seem to be giving you a message? Subway signs, radio songs, billboards–simply “ask” for a sign and you will receive one. So what if you receive a sign? How might you interpret it? Let’s take the letter “C” for instance. It might mean:
–The letter “C”
–The Spanish word for “yes”
–A word beginning with the letter “C”
–The Sea (water)
–Something shaped like the letter “C”!
Connect with and understand the way in which your world can communicate with you. It will bring a little magic into your life!
In certain circumstances, people may depend upon you to provide for them, take care of them, and guide them, and this temporary state of dependency may be normal. Yet if this dependency becomes permanent or occurs over a long period of time, the person may feel angry about needing you. Resentment may grow for both of you. “Why can’t I do this for myself?” may become the person’s question.
If the feelings and dynamics continue, the relationship can turn into a “hostile dependent” one in which the person feels angry for needing you as well as you feeling angry for the dependency.
How is this type of relationship created? You may create a hostile dependent relationship with another person through:
a need to be needed–if I make the person dependent, I am important;
a need to control–if the person is dependent on me, I can control their choices;
a fear of being abandoned–if the person is dependent, he/she won’t leave me.
When you are helping others, ask yourself a few questions to ensure healthy relationship dynamics:
Would my helping this person give him or her greater independence and growth?
Would my assistance help this person to know his or her own talents, strengths, and capabilities?
Does my helping cause this person ultimately to be able to help himself/herself?
Remember the Chinese proverb: “Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.”
I once heard a riddle that went something like this: “Five frogs sat on a log. One decided to jump. How many frogs were left?”
I remember thinking through what the logical answer would be (four) but knowing there must be some trick to this. Actually, there wasn’t a trick but instead a revelation.
The answer to the riddle is: Five. There’s a difference between deciding to jump and actually jumping.
Now this leads me to an important point: Power exists in taking action. While it is important to think, plan, and strategize, it is equally important to ACT.
What have you been thinking about for a long time, may even be convinced should happen, but haven’t taken action on? Decide today to do one thing that requires necessary action . . . and move forward!
Looking for signs around you is the most natural act in the world. Humans have always used omens or signs to figure out the world around them.
