Drop the Story & Flap Your Wings

I just returned from a weekend in the Adirondacks with my friend Ron who has a house there. The Mayan elders taught me how God talks to us all the time through nature. Of course, God is not restricted to communicating through nature. God talks to us through everything, even through our technological world: our computers, cars, TV shows, movies, radio shows, etc. Over the three days, deer, blue heron, red squirrel, hawk, and hummingbird crossed my path and my friend's. Each had some 

quality I could apply to my life situation and they each had something relevant to say about the circumstances in my friend's life. We could each draw upon the gentleness o deer, the self-reliance and sturdy patience of  of blue heron, the non-aggressiveness yet resourceful protectiveness of red squirrel, the infinite joy of hummingbird, and the recognition that they all come to us courtesy of hawk—the messenger of Great Spirit, God. 

In a New Earth, Ekhart Tolle uses the example of what two ducks do after they have a fight. "They separate, go off, and flap their wings, releasing the stored up energy, and then float on peacefully as if nothing had happened.

"If the duck had a human mind, it would keep the fight alive by thinking, by story making. This would probably be the duck's story. "I don't believe what he just did. He came to within five inches of me. He thinks he owns this pond. He has no consideration for my private space. I'll never trust him again. Next time, he'll try something else just to annoy me. I'm sure he's plotting something already. But I'm not going to stand for this. I'll teach him a lesson he won't forget. And on and on the mind spins its tales, still talking about it days, months, or years later. 

"As far as the body is concerned, the fight is still  continuing. . . . this is how most humans live all the time. No situation or event is ever really finished. The mind and the mind-made me and my story keep it going. We are a species that has lost its way. Everything natural, every flower or tree and every animal have important lessons to teach us if we would only stop, look, and listen. Our duck's lesson is this: flap your wings, which translates as let go of the story and return to the only place of power, the present moment?"

• Consider how much we keep our upsets alive by the stories we tell ourselves about the events in our lives. Rather than keep reviewing and thereby continuing to stress ourselves, we can try flapping our wings with the mantra of compassion. Picture the person who upsets you, and silently say to him or her, "I know in my heart, you would have done differently if you really could have done differently, but you couldn't (not yet anyway) so you didn't."