Knock and the door shall be opened — unless you’re just being rude
I was on a long flight with my wife and our three kids from Vancouver, BC, to Cancun for our one and only Mexico vacation. Flight delays, a long layover in Atlanta, and seats at the very back of the plane that didn’t recline while I was exhausted and hoping to rest had put me on tilt.
Mid-flight I got up to go to the bathroom. Waiting outside the rear galley lavatory, it seemed as though an eternity had passed since either of the users had exited. I was annoyed and impatient, so I rapped on one of the doors.
I was blindsided and bewildered when the flight attendant went ballistic on me for rushing the occupant.
To this day I don’t think what I did was so terrible. But I have to admit, I was not in a very alert or balanced state of mind, and I’d never seen anybody knock on an airplane washroom door before. I’d also never seen them monopolized for that length of time.
Looking around at the other waiting passengers I was hoping to see sympathetic faces, but I only felt further ashamed to see more looks of condemnation from the bystanders.
I believe most people who know me would call me a considerate and courteous person. But in this case, I had clearly missed the mark — enough to be judged by a jury of my airborne peers and to be given some strong feedback to consider.
Amplified feedback is usually a sign
You don’t have to be an adherent of any formal religion to believe in the interconnectedness of things. You may have experienced enough unexplainable coincidences to believe in some form of unified field theory — like getting phone calls from someone you were just thinking about, prayers answered, or even being immediately faced with a test for a life lesson you’ve just learned.
In actuality, I think we’re getting subtle signals from our own perceptions and sensations all the time, and that they’re transrational and highly intelligent. We can feel or sense patterns, possibilities, and cautions at a level that defies logic and yet are often accurate. When we tune out those perceptions and ignore them, the universe has to get a little louder and more obvious to get our attention.
Mindfulness is the basis of a good life for this reason.
When we can self-correct based on our inner sense of balance, kindness, harmony, and flow, external reminders and feedback become less necessary.
If we disconnect from our own inner navigation system, then the external world in the form of situations, circumstances, and individuals inherits the job of letting us know when we’re drifting off course — like the textured highway shoulder that rattles our vehicle when we’re straying from the pavement.
Such external reminders might come in the form of:
An empty bank account
Your mate being chronically unhappy
Losing your job
Having one of your kids stop speaking to you
Getting a speeding ticket
Chronically losing track of objects and commitments
If these don’t get your attention, the universe sends a message up the chain of command to less benign messengers, like:
Car accidents
Bankruptcy
Major health problems
Relationship break-ups
Feeling pain
As humans, we have the capacity to be conscious. Part of being conscious is having the awareness of pain, which may signal an imbalance. If we’re emotionally, physically, intellectually, or spiritually out of whack, we’ll feel like something is wrong.
More and more of what we have the option to consume in modern day life, however, seems designed to disconnect us from our self-awareness.
Foods that overwhelm our attention; drugs, alcohol and substances that dull our awareness; entertainment that distracts us from our bodies; and schedules that outrun our rhythms can make us prone to losing track of reality.
I believe there is a higher order that is always inviting us into alignment; that we’ll get gentle reminders to dance in harmony with our lives as long as we’re aware and responsive — and that reminders will stop being gentle if we ignore the subtler feedback.
Good reasons why God might yell
The last year brought big changes for me, and for much of it I’ve had the sense I am being yelled at by God.
The state of my relationships, health, finances, work, and inner stability in this transition year have all been sending me messages that I need to be paying closer attention right now.
Most of us tend to take getting “yelled at” personally, as though we’ve done something wrong. But what if God — the unified field of intelligence we exist within — actually just cares about us enough to send wake-up calls, soft alarms, or — when needed — billboard-size roadside messages to help us stay on track and manage change with more awareness and skill?
I’ve been reflecting on how complex life is and how much there is to pay attention to. Given our mortal limits, maybe we all just really need the help of “God” to stay on course.
Here are a few reasons why God might yell at us.
To alert us to an opportunity before it passes
To inspire us to speak up when we’re playing small
To trigger an avalanche to seal off our usual escape route
Because we’ve assumed privileges that we have not earned
To liberate us from the prison of thinking we are special
Because some forms of armor must be forcibly removed
To disassemble manufactured authenticity
To help us discover that we can dance to anything
Because we’ve lost sight of ourselves in excuses and justifications
To create a stand by removing all seats of comfort from the room
To reach someone standing next to us that God can’t speak to directly
Because we’ve forgotten that not making a decision is a decision
To cause our buried embers to burst into full flame
In conclusion
There are a lot of circumstances in which we could use help in paying attention and exercising vigilant awareness.
The next time life appears to be yelling at you in the form of your partner, child, bank account, health, boss, colleagues, parents, friends — or the weather, economy, traffic, or some authority — you can consult the list above and review whether it might be God trying to get your attention for a good reason.
And just to be clear, God doesn’t yell at us through people and circumstances that are chronically toxic, abusive, dangerous, or unhealthy. The reason those things yell at us is because we haven’t learned to stand up for ourselves and say no, or at least ask for help.
I hope you’ve found this article useful.
If not, just leave your feedback in the comments and I’ll give it my immediate attention so you won’t have to yell.
Being from Atlanta I wish more people had an Atlanta experience outside of a layover....but I understand why it's not always a top travel destination 😂
I loved this: ”When we can self-correct based on our inner sense of balance, kindness, harmony, and flow, external reminders and feedback become less necessary.”
Does that mean we don’t “God” to shout ?