http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHAW5G8LDuw

When Spirit drops a calling card in front of us we have the option of picking it up and answering it, or leaving it and walking away.  If we chose to answer we find ourselves invited into Spirit’s dwelling place — our hearts.

Thor: Ragnarok

There is a scene in Thor: Ragnarok when Thor knocks on Dr Strange’s door that beautifully illustrates this moment.  As he knocks he stumbles through the door into Dr Strange’s dwelling.  He is a little confused, looking around, taking in the room.  He is holding his umbrella (his hammer in disguise) before him in a protective ready-for-danger kind of way. 

Dr Strange says, “You can put down your umbrella.”

Invitation to drop our defenses:

Many times this is our first invitation form Spirit after our yes — the invitation to drop our defenses.  We are human after all.  It is natural for us to have our defenses up, our walls ready to protect us. 

In order to truly be in dialogue with Spirit we must be willing to be fully vulnerable.  It is this willingness to be fully vulnerable that drops us into our hearts.  Walls and defenses separate us from our hearts, from Spirit.

There is one other thing that separates us from truly being able to co-create with Spirit. 

Our hammer/umbrella really is our fixed perception.

When we set down to have our conversation with Spirit, to begin to manifest our dream together, we usually have a firm idea of what we want it to look like — an image, a thought, a detailed hope.  This is our fixed perception: knowing what we want and how we want it, and holding onto that image/thought/vision no matter what.  It become fixated in our mind’s eye.  Many times it is what keeps us focused and working toward our goals.  Other times we use it to discern how our progress is.

This is fine.  However, when we co-create it usually does not go the way we want it to.  Co-creating is an invitation to release our control regarding how to create this manifestation and what it will look like.  Co-creating means that we invite Spirit to guide us. 

We need to recognize that Spirit’s image of what we are working toward may be completely different that our imagined one.  When it is, it is my experience that Spirit’s vision is actually more in alignment with my soul’s purpose, with the what I really desire the outcome of my creating to be.

If we can drop our fixed perceptions then we can truly co-create powerfully transformative manifestations in this world!

Many times our fixed perceptions are connected to our deepest fears.  Our vision for what we are creating many times solves all, some or one of the problems/fears that we are experiencing.

What do I mean?  Let’s take fear of financial failure as an example.  When I was writing my business plan for Weaving Sacred Spaces (my image/vision), I wrote it in such a way as to be financially safe.  I had three parts to the plan:  (1) one to one clients; (2) retreats; (3) High Desert Essences.  I was beginning with the one to one clients so that I would have a financial grounding to support the other work.  I feared financial failure, so I created a plan that would help prevent it.  However, this plan took me away from the original vision I received 15 years ago in the Lake District of England.

Spirit, however, held to that vision I was given all those years ago.  Spirit brought me into a co-creating experience with flower spirits, animal spirits, and more, creating High Desert Essences as the first layer of my business.  That is not something I would have chosen.  However, it is exactly the medicine that I desire to offer in this world.

Now, Spirit is igniting within me my passion for retreats, teaching, mentoring.  I have begun the work of creating weekend retreats. 

And, to make me laugh and humble me, Spirit solved my financial fears by inviting me to be bi-vocational and be a part-time pastor.

I am indeed humbled.  I am in awe at what is being co-created between us. 

Once I dropped my fixed perception (my hammer/umbrella), I was able to flow fully in the co-creating experience with Spirit and things have happen I could never have imagined!

What would happen if you did that?  Are you willing to “put your umbrella/hammer down?”