By Jo Mooy
It’s time to become willing to step out of our safe comfort zones and move past inertia and isolation.
The question wasn’t difficult. It wasn’t life altering. There were no repercussions to the answer. All the questioner asked for was a yes or no reply. All that was required was for the recipient to read the question, interpret what it said, weigh their options regarding the question, and simply reply yes or no. But what came back to the sender was a handful of yeses, and she got to read a deluge of answers filled with meandering stories, vapid explanations, and from many, the inability to commit to either a yes or no answer because blah blah blah….fill in the blanks!
Was the inability to answer a delayed Covid symptom? Had individuals lost the ability to think, assess and make a decision? Did two years of isolation and separation cripple commitments? It’s possible because social and personal behavior radically changed. Many were no longer comfortable leaving the safety of their home nests. And, making any future plans required a supreme act of faith that life would not slam them or pull the floor out from under them as it did in March 2020.
Yet in a simple yes or no question, uncertainty continued to control most lives. Uncertainty is an emotion that’s not only self-feeding but also self-defeating. Especially because it fuels hopelessness. It’s an emotion that’s easy to buy into and adore because it gives permission for fears to dominate the internal conversation. This is especially disturbing because, when fear monopolizes consciousness, there’s no way to see anything positive in any given situation. Fear then permeates the atmosphere like a silent, negative foam so that only retreat or isolation offers solace. The result is that no commitments are made.
Touching and social interaction are essential to human life and health. Both lighten moods, reinforce feelings of connection to our intimate communities, and they increase personal happiness. Without it we wither away, especially because the human feelings of belonging, security and safety are diminished. So, at this point in the enormous social and health experiment, there’s a decision to be made. Will we let the air out of the balloon and trust that we can return to a degree of normalcy? Or willingly write what will become the new normal?
For each, it’s a very personal decision. But it must begin with simply saying YES! Yes has a profound gravitational wave around it. When uttered by thought or word, it erupts like an arrow towards a target. Yes triggers a decision and a commitment. Yes says I’m willing to step out of my safe comfort zone, where I spent two years of inertia or isolation. Yes forces me to look into the future. Because there’s always going to be a future. It’s the nature of this existence we live in. So I either say yes and choose to be part of that future or step aside and wither away, while others seize the momentum.
It won’t be easy stepping into the new future—whatever it turns out to be. The new vision has already been set in place. If we look carefully we can see what’s taking shape. And it’s quite a remarkable one. If you’re unsure, ask your children to define it. Better yet, ask your grandchildren because they’re fairly sure about what it looks like.
We can either become part of it by stepping up and firmly saying YES, or folding back into our nests by saying no. But there’s no either/or.
A wise philosopher lived on an ancient swamp planet known as Dagobah. He taught the Jedi warrior-monks under his tutelage discipline, moral values, and how to keep peace and maintain justice in an ever evolving universe. His motto was “Do or do not. There is no try!” Yoda’s motto is the simplicity of YES!
Jo Mooy has studied with many spiritual traditions over the past 40 years. The wide diversity of this training allows her to develop spiritual seminars and retreats that explore inspirational concepts, give purpose and guidance to students, and present esoteric teachings in an understandable manner. Along with Patricia Cockerill, she has guided the Women’s Meditation Circle since January 2006 where it has been honored for five years in a row as the “Favorite Meditation” group in Sarasota, FL, by Natural Awakenings Magazine. Teaching and using Sound as a retreat healing practice, Jo was certified as a Sound Healer through Jonathan Goldman’s Sound Healing Association. She writes and publishes a monthly internationally distributed e-newsletter called Spiritual Connections and is a staff writer for Spirit of Maat magazine in Sedona. For more information go to http://www.starsoundings.com or email jomooy@gmail.com.