I recently had the immense pleasure of being invited to attend a gathering of what are simply referred to as “Wise Women”. It is a beautiful collaboration of incredibly talented, successful women gathered together by another of them. It didn’t take long for me to feel a bit out of place, and yet I was humbled by the invitation and decided in short order to get the hell over myself and settle in.
During our time we were, at a particular point, asked to share a perspective or something we’ve noticed lately. Here, I heard words that struck me to my core: Spirit closes the door for us because it knows we won’t. I literally had tingles throughout my body. Even as others spoke, I found one aspect of my mind going over all the moments in my life where Spirit closed a door for me because it knew I wouldn’t. All the times I got a really uncomfortable piece of information, saw something in someone I couldn’t unsee, wasn’t chosen, didn’t get the opportunity, didn’t feel seen or heard in a situation, and from those places, made hard choices; leaving jobs, leaving friendships, my first marriage, dating relationships, organizations, friends who weren’t really friends, and believing I was making the right decisions for the right reasons.
I am a believer in choosing your perspective. I believe we all have power over how we see the world and our place in it. I’ve been fortunate to choose to see many uncomfortable situations for the good they brought into my life later on, sometimes much later on, but still. I always thought of this as a sign of some strength in character to make lemonade out of lemons, but here it was so plain and simply put in a way that had never occurred to me. Spirit closes doors for us because it knows we won’t.
Yes.
I thought back to many of those same character-building experiences and saw them each from a new perspective; from how Spirit had given me information, a view into someone, discomfort, sadness, pain, watching someone do something horrendous right in front of me like they didn’t know I was there, except they did (weird, but effective). A fire (seriously, a real fire) because I needed to get the information I was resisting. In every situation, there was a part of me that “knew”, but I needed Spirit to close the door for me, with me, because it knew I wouldn’t.
Thank you, Spirit!
We all have those experiences in our lives – the “not so great”. There are times we experience hard and plain sucky moments or situations. I invite you to take a look through a different lens. How often has Spirit closed a door for you, simply because it knew that you wouldn’t?
It’s a gift – a pure, simple, beautiful loving gift. Spirit loves us and wants us to live our lives in joy. It knows what is “for us, and against”, and sometimes we need the door slammed in our face with a loud booming “NO!”. It’s not because we are not loved, but rather because we ARE.
Forever the journey, Anne