Presence? All it takes is a toe

My buddy Kelly of Kikipotamus the Hobo is a consistent blogger, making her quite different than I am. Yes, I am capable of it--heck, I wrote every day during the month of June because I had committed to doing so--but it's just not a passion of mine. Love to write, not so clear on writing on any set schedule.

I am, though, a consistent reader. Kelly writes in such an accessible style about matters of interest to me that I find her blog irresistible.

Just yesterday, she made the point that, by awakening earlier than is her norm, she was able to greatly influence the way her entire day went. Everything happened in more of a flow than it sometimes does, and she noticed that she felt more present, more in the life she was living all day long rather than running along side it.

My own technique, recently experienced, was not intentional, but it has worked very well.

A week ago today, I stubbed a toe which was still recovering from a vicious stubbing of some months back. I don't know how common it is to abuse one's fourth toe, but that's the one which has suffered repeatedly at my hands. Well, not 'at my hands' but you know what I mean...more like, 'at my furniture.'

It was not pretty (note to self: no photos!).

Here's the thing, though. For every minute I have been ambulatory this last week, I have carefully paid attention to what was going on around me. Admittedly, I was most attentive to anything on my right side which required negotiating my right foot around. Still, I have noticed, again and again, how present I have felt, and more deeply than is typical.

I find it a curious irony that my own Self, that larger-than-Earthsuit part of me which is not only my guiding light when I am smart enough to allow it to be, but my always-on connection to All That Is, is more available to me...because of a stubbed toe.

There's a lesson in here somewhere, and I'd welcome your opinion as to what it might be, exactly. All I know is, I am deathly afraid of even touching my offended toe in any sort of offhanded way to anything I have not already calculated to be softer than baby's breath--and I'm talkin' actual breath from babies, not something you embellish your rose bouquet with--and that fear has helped me be fully in the moment for most of the last week.

It has been a startlingly amazing week, too. Crazy, in-the-flow stuff has happened in both the mundane--traffic lights I have never made in ten years, I suddenly find green as I approach--and in the spiritual/ethereal. Serendipitous events are commonplace, and stuff just seems to line up if I allow it the leeway to do so. My efforts are more about allowing than they are about striving to complete tasks.

Yes, some of this is a consequence of simply paying more attention to what is happening right before my eyes. Like the day recently which opened with this, less than 30 minutes after sunrise----->

...followed by this, same day, about 13 hours later!
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My bottom line is not dependent upon cause, but upon outcome. We can each believe whatever suits us, and what we experience will likely reflect much of the energy of that belief system. I have learned what works for me--what actions and attitudes on my part result in the outcome I find preferable--and I have been experiencing more of it with my stubbed toe than without.

For next week, my goal is to learn the same kind of presence without having to abuse any part of my body. We'll see how it goes.