Willing to Be Found

It’s one thing to wish for something and it’s another to be truly willing to receive it.

Here are two stories to illustrate my point.

Claudia told herself and anyone willing to listen that, following the breakdown of her last relationship, what she really wanted was to find another partner. So she set out to find one by posting a profile on a dating website as well as joining a few local groups where she’d be likely to meet someone with similar interests. However, whenever somebody, either online or in person, showed interest in her, she found fault with them and declined any further contact. She then told friends that there were no suitable partners out there in the whole wide world of dating. But was she really open to re-partnering ? Was she willing to be found?

Henry told himself, his friends and anyone who would listen that he wanted to put down a particular substance that he was over-using and that was causing him difficulties in almost every aspect of his life. He attended 12-step meetings but didn’t do the suggested things. At the same time, he told himself and others that his 12-step program was useless. However one has to wonder if he was willing to let sobriety into his life. And, was he willing to be found by the transformative power of the 12-steps?

In both Claudia’s and Henry’s cases it seems that their words said, “Yes.”, while their actions said, “No.”.

Readers, my experience is this. The good things in life – for example, love for Claudia and sobriety for Henry – can be ours if we are truly and deeply willing to receive them. They are ours if we are willing to be found by the thing we need and wish for the most — if we open ourselves to possibility, if we trust something greater or more powerful than we are, if we stretch out our hands in a gesture of willingness to receive them. If we do our part, they can be ours in some shape or another. But we must do something, even a small something, in order to set the process in motion. And, we must be truly open to receiving it.

What I’ve noticed is that, whatever the external circumstances of our lives, there is often an internal blockage to receiving whatever it is that we say we are wishing for. And, in my experience, that internal blockage is usually comprised of fear.

But fear of what? Claudia, for instance, it may be a deep fear of emotional intimacy and/or a fear of rejection. And for Henry, it may be fear of the unknown, for example, how he will deal his current mental and emotional state and/or life circumstances without his drug of choice.

The lesson for all of us is this: we need to examine the underneath of the underneath of what stands between us and whatever we desire so that we are in a position of true willingness to be found by it. We need to be available.

So, my question for you (and for me) is this: Are you really available to receive the gifts you desire?

Are you really, really willing to be found?