Where does the urge come from? A drop of inspiration...
a faint glow in the mist... the sound of a distant flute...
What can inspire us to move forward?

Is it failure that drives success? Or loss that allows us
to become whole? Is it dissatisfaction that helps us feel
peace - discord pointing the way to harmony?

There comes a time when yearnings lead to change - a time
when attachments to the old familiar reality must be cast
aside. What we thought real and permanent is shattered as
we walk into the abyss. At this time - the first step -
the earth moves, disappears and one foot is suspended in air.
Loss is great and liberating. We become homeless wanderers.

Many of us are ambivalent about change. Even when our present
conditions do not suit us we often cling to what is familiar.
We may be enslaved by the power of habit, behaving and
thinking in ways that don't help us follow the highest light
we have. It may even be that periodic visions of our real
purpose are seen and felt, but our power to move in that
direction falters in the face of the unknown changes that lie
on the road ahead. It has been said that greater even than
the struggle between good and evil is the raging battle
between freedom and security.

Striving for security is a natural instinct. We all want to
feel the fullness of abundance. But it is all too often the
case that the search for material, emotional, or even
spiritual security becomes the death of freedom. Many steady
jobs are felt as a prison by the gainfully employed.
Relationships based mainly on the need for security become
endangered if the individuals don't feel the freedom to grow
and change in a natural way. Many creeds and religions,
though perhaps established in the name of spiritually
liberated beings, find their places of worship filled with
"seekers" who forget to look through their own eyes and
listen with their own ears - lost in vacant dogma - ensnared
by tradition or technique.

There is a hollow place inside that wants to be filled. From
that dark place a silently whispering voice urges us to move
toward the freedom which is our birthright. As we learn to
become quieter and more receptive to that voice it will give
us all the guidance needed to move on. It gives direction.
Few of us would give up everything; our job, family and
spiritual tradition, in the quest for freedom. That kind of
renunciation would probably do more harm than good anyway.
But a more subtle inner renunciation is needed before we can
make the transition from darkness to light. Prepared to give
up anything that does not serve our highest good, a new peace
and freedom is experienced. Little by little the voice of
intuition is heard as truth speaking to the heart through
lips of conscience.

We can try to plan our lives for smooth transitions, but
often they seem to be thrust upon us with little or no
warning. There is a point of transition in childbirth when
the mother is about to push the child out into the world.
She will no longer be "expecting" but will be fully absorbed
in motherhood. The baby makes the leap from a dark inner
world completely protected, connected to her mother, to a
bright outer world of separation and change. Transition is a
painful experience with great opportunities for growth and
awareness of new things. At birth each of us breathed a
first breath into our tiny frail body, maybe crying out,
before embarking on the path of change called life. Each
new change can be greeted with innocence and acceptance if
we will allow it.

David Wodtke circa 2000