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Maggie Carter
Following The Simple Directions
November, 2005
I have lived in Fort Collins, Colorado for over 24 years. In a couple of months I will be moving to Asheville, North Carolina.
Friends ask me, "How did you
decide on Asheville?" "What do you like about Asheville?" "Why are you
moving there?" All very good questions. And I would love to answer them
because I am wondering the same thing. How did this decision happen?
Making decisions, I've
learned over the past few years, is about "following the simple
directions." I have gotten better at doing that. Facing a decision
about where to live next presented some wonderful opportunities to
experience listening and "following those simple directions."
As I searched for a new place
to call 'home" I asked my Inner Knowing to make it perfectly clear to
me and I would move wherever that guidance led me - I thought.
Maggie: I wonder where I might live next?
Inner Knowing: (In a gentle, loving voice) "Asheville, North Carolina."
Maggie: Huh? Nah! Not there! Where else?
I didn't like the answer.
"Sure I'll go anywhere. What about Port Townsend, Washington?." Not
liking the answer that comes has stopped me many times from "following
the simple directions."
I searched the web, talked to
people, looked at maps and wondered. My mind was busy with what it
thought it wanted in a new place to live. I looked at every city I
could think of in the west that matched some criteria I thought I had.
Maggie: I would be
happy to go wherever God sends me. I could live anywhere, even Calcutta
or Spain or South America! Becoming an ex-patriot could be exciting.
Inner Knowing: (In a gentle, loving and firm voice) "Asheville, North Carolina."
Maggie: I couldn't
move there. There aren't any real mountains there. The real mountains
are here in Colorado, in the west. I'm a western type girl. Asheville
is in the south for heavens sake!
What was really true was that
I had unconsciously eliminated any place in the U.S. east of where I
now lived and was blind to that truth. I actually thought I was open to
any place.
I tried not thinking about
it. I tried settling into the unknown. I told people I was moving but
that it wasn't clear to me where I would move. I had a sense that
wasn't true. Something told me that my Inner Knowing knew but I wasn't
really listening.
I sat in the 'not-knowing', I
sat in the game of trying to figure it out. At times, one place would
hold some appeal and then it would fade without explanation. The part
of me that thought it needed to know played some wonderful mind games
trying to figure it all out.
I really believed I wanted to
know the answer. What I learned along the way is that there was a part
of me that didn't want to know the answer. I was fooling myself.
Knowing the answer would mean that I would have to face the next set of
realities, selling the house, finding a new place to live and the whole
moving process and everything that comes with moving. That was scary
and daunting. Once I saw that truth and acknowledged it, there was more
openness for the answer to be heard.
At one point in talking with some friends I made the following comment with a hint of frustration and surrender.
Maggie: At this point I just don't really care any more where I live. I just want to know where.
Inner Knowing: Finally!! She's Open! "Asheville, North Carolina."
Maggie: Asheville? Tell me more. Why would I live there?
That was all my Inner Knowing
seemed to need. The crack was open and for the next month God put
Asheville in my face. Every time I mentioned Asheville to anyone they
had a story to tell about living there, about what a great place it
was, about how they knew people there and how they could really see me
there. It was as if God was speaking to me through everyone I talked
to. As if God knew I needed to hear all those wonderful things since I
was still hesitant. Each day I felt the decision unfold inside of me
and fill me up.
Maggie: I've never
even been to Asheville. How could I decide to move to a place I had
never really visited? Don't you need to see a place before you decide
to move there?
Inner Knowing: Is that true, you need to see a place before you decide to move there?
Maggie: Apparently not, I know lots of people who have moved to places they've never been. I have done that myself, in fact.
The decision continues to
make me. Each day I find myself moving as if the decision has been
made. I have been telling friends, I called the realtor to put my house
on the market, I contacted a realtor in Asheville. My actions indicate
a decision has been made. And I sit in wonder observing what I feel and
observing my actions. How did this decision get made? How did I get to
this place? I have no idea. All I know is that I am moving to Asheville
and I don't really know how the decision was made.
My sense is that there is a
big surprise party waiting for me there with 100 different presents
waiting to be opened and explored. Ask me in about three years and I
might be able to answer the question, "Why did you decide to move to
Asheville?"
Right now, I'm just doing my
best to "follow the simple directions" Asheville, North Carolina! And
what I also know to be true is that when I say "yes" to my Inner
Knowing and "follow the simple directions" it is always a good thing.
It's me saying yes to Me.
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