How Do the Geese Know-Daily Meditation October 12, 2022
Today’s quotation:
How do the geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans, know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us, there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us so certainly when to go forth into the unknown. Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross
Today’s Meditation:
That voice within. That beautiful, magical presence inside us that lets us know almost everything that we need to know–that can help us to make the right decisions every time, that can help us to make the right choices and say the right things and avoid saying and doing the wrong things. That wonderful voice that we ignore so often in our efforts to run our lives in the ways that we see fit.
“If only we would listen to it.” One of the greatest gifts that we have as human beings, and we tend to ignore it! How could that be so? In his story “To Build a Fire,” Jack London tells us of a man who uses reason to try to survive in temperatures of 75 degrees below zero. He’s accompanied by a dog whose instinct tells him he shouldn’t be out there. The man who depends on reason dies, while the dog who trusts his instinct survives. It’s a beautiful lesson on the limits of reason and the powers of instinct, and it’s a lesson that I try to pay attention to in my day-to-day life.
Many people pray, but few people listen for responses to their prayers. Many people talk with friends, but not everyone listens when their friends talk. Listening is a skill that must be practiced if we’re going to get good at it, and listening to that voice that comes from inside us is a skill that few people value enough even to think of practicing. But what kinds of benefits can it bring us to pay attention to it?
The voice tells us when it’s time to venture forth and which directions to take. If I heed and trust the voice, I’m taking advantage of a beautiful gift. If I ignore it and don’t trust it, then I’m squandering a great gift. And what good does that do me or anyone else in my life?
Questions to consider:
What has your inner voice told you lately?
Why should we heed that voice?
What kinds of things make it hard to hear that voice?
For further thought:
Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
