Yesterday I told someone that I would turn on my "observer" and see what the universe brought me to see. When you choose to stand back and watch what you and others are doing it can be quite entertaining. The first thing I caught myself doing was reacting to my husband's process, yet again. I've been intending that I would stop that, and so I was able to pull back and allow him to do things in his own way. I offered my help and when I could see him offering resistance, I simply backed away, but not with anger this time, with love. (I need to learn how to stay in this space!)
The next thing the universe offered me was a new word for my vocabulary. I was browsing the web news last evening and read a story about Kevin Bacon and the 6 degrees joke. The joke says that you can connect any actor in the world to Kevin Bacon in six steps. I think you can probably connect anything to anything else in six steps. Mr. Bacon himself thought the joke would die out by now; "I thought it was definitely going to go the way of eight-track cassettes and pet rocks. But it's a concept that has sort of hung around in the Zeitgeist..." Well to shorten this already too long story, my learning was the word "zeitgeist". I'd never come across it before. Its a German expression that means "the spirit (geist) of the time (Zeit). The spirit of the time. That brings up a whole new idea to consider doesn't it? What is the spirit of the times now? Is it different for everyone or is it something outside of individuals and really is part of our common culture? It is defined as the "ethos of a cohort of people that spans one or more generations, who despite their diverse age and socio-economic background experience a certain worldview". I can't seem to wrap my mind around what our common world view might be today.
This morning my husband and I made a run to a thrift store to drop off some clothing for a donation and did some other errands. On the way home we decided to stop by Taco Bell to pick up something for lunch. We were sitting in a long line at the drive-thru and there was a strange young man standing outside the building acting in a bizarre way. Let me set the stage. It is very cold here today and windy so the wind chill is probably in the low 20's. He is dressed in layers (many layers by the look). He has on knee pads, elbow pads and a helmet. There is a bike next to him. He is leaning back oddly and appears to be talking to someone that I can't see. He appears to be agreeing with this invisible companion. He does not have the focused look of one just talking on his bluetooth headset. His gaze is looking all around and smiling and half waving. He kneels down and appears to be pouring liquid on the ground from his plastic soda cup. When he picks up what he's been working on on the ground its a backpack with a green alien stuffed doll attached to the back. Was he offering a drink to ET? I say to my husband, "that young man has a real hard time fitting in with the main stream". I thought his manner was so outrageous that perhaps it was all an act. Could he have been a reporter doing a story on schizophrenia? I thought that "poor soul". What I noticed was that I would have been loathe to get out of the car to speak to him to see if he needed anything. I saw how my fear holds me back from truly being open to people in need. OK, universe, I don't think I like that about myself. How do you strike the balance between being open and helpful and not undermining your own safety? I know, I know....safety is an illusion, but I'm having some trouble dissuading myself of it right now.
I'm afraid that once the "observer" is turned on you can't turn it off again. Pandora had nothing on this guy. LOL
Stay warm, may the universe send you all the resources you require.
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