The Unexpected...navigating how life shows up
- Sam Maclean
- Oct 28
- 3 min read
I sent this post out by email earlier this fall and had requests to share it publicly so am doing so here. I hope the message about flowing with life benefits all who come across it.
If you are really paying attention,
your life is a sequence of shifts
occasionally interrupted by a through-line.
-Stephen Jenkinson
Back in August I experienced what I thought to be a huge interruption! And, as a result, my life did not proceed forward as I had planned. I resisted going to the doctor, I pushed through the pain and kept telling myself it would get better if I "just gave it a little more time". I frequently told myself that "I did not have time for this" interruption.
Well, as it turned out, I was in the middle of an interruption. Or perhaps a better word for it was an interlude or intermission. You know, just like at the movies or a theatrical play: the brief pause from the action where you go out for more popcorn, visit the restroom and move your legs before returning to where the plot left off.
At least, that's what I was hoping for...just a momentary break in the continuity of my life.
And yet, you don't get to be my age (62) without learning that there is always deeper wisdom to everything taking place.
Originally during this interruption I was all tangled-up trying to figure out how to maintain some semblance of "work". Could I do work remotely? What is the least amount of time I could be away from clients before it is more than a pause? Over time and with my meditation/contemplation practice all the knots released.
How do you know
being slowed-down isn't God?
-Stephen Jenkinson
Those knots were eased thanks in part by a sage with name Stephen Jenkinson. His work and lyrical prose arrived before me at the perfect time. The resonance was powerful.
I held lightly the question he posed (above)... each time I felt the pangs of worry or concern or fear or regret arising in me. And each time a quiet silence prompted me to instead return to the sweet life that was taking place before me, right under my feet.
Each day I begin with the question: How do I know that being slowed-down is not God? And my answer tends to be...I do not know. So even the possibility of that is worthy of proceeding as IF it were God.
In the banal places...
a lot of things are born there.
-Stephen Jenkinson
Perhaps this interruption or intermission or pause as I am now referring to it, is a bit of a paradox. All at once it is both a sweet and simple time to revel in the every-dayness of life AND the empty space potential that physicist David Bohm refers to as being a plenum...a birthing space.
I feel that possibility. I sense that potential. In reality there is no direct continuity from what was before to whatever comes next. Transformation is always taking place.
We are in the Metal phase of east-asian medicine so the Qi is moving within as we let-go of what no longer serves us. I have been gifted this beautiful pause during this time of introspection and am ever so grateful for it. Whatever seed or seeds are being planted I assure the universe (or God) that I will be patient for their future unfolding.
As for returning to my beloved work with horses and dogs, I will begin scheduling appointments in November.
If you want to learn more about the Metal phase and how to support your animals and yourself during this time of letting-go, click on the "learn more" button below.
With heart and in harmony,
Sam❤️
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