I was visiting the nearby town of Shepherdstown, Virginia yesterday when a zealous young fellow around the age of 5 approached me with an offer that I could not refuse: he would draw anything I requested.
My beloved, an artist in his own right, asked the whippersnapper to draw me. With a magic marker in one hand and a clipboard full of white paper in the other, he set off to draw his masterpiece. He was sure to mention that I was under no obligation, but that I could purchase the drawing for $2.00 if I liked the finished product.
The image on the left is me. As he handed me the drawing he mentioned that I was free to add anything to the picture that I wanted. I thanked him and we left that bright spirit to get lattes. I noticed in his picture he placed my body more to one side leaving a lot of blank space on the page. I caught up with him making his way down the street seeking out other patrons drawing mostly fruit and asked if he might add my partner to the drawing. Meanwhile, my guy was still standing in line for those lattes a little way down the street. He was more than happy to draw my man who is featured on the right wearing his winter hat. I am 5’4 (and a half) and my guy is 6’3. In the picture you might notice that his figure is shorter than mine. Our budding artist drew exactly what he saw not able yet to discern the role that distance might play in distorting his perception of height. We all believe that what we perceive is our reality although the facts might inform us otherwise.
As we are influenced by our mental and emotional energy, we formulate opinions about what we are experiencing and in turn we look for evidence in the physical world to support our theories. This is very normal. What some people may not realize, is that when you change your perception, you can change what you experience. This is very powerful! You can easily see that this lad drew my guy smaller because he is still developing his sense of spatial perception. We adults operate short sighted because we are still developing our energetic perception. We create challenging experiences for ourselves because we focus our thoughts and feelings on what we do not want thereby increasing the energy flowing to that experience. It creates a powerful magnet to attract those unwanted experiences into our lives. Want to change your life? Start by seeing your life as a picture you are drawing. What is in the picture that you like, appreciate and want to experience? Place that in the center, as an egocentric 5-year-old might. Consider why you continue to draw certain people or situations on your paper even though they keep you from trending in the direction you want to go. I recently found myself making small talk with my massage therapist to break the awkward silence that happens when you are trying out a new practitioner. After the niceties, she delved into her past relationship. I listened as she shared her feelings around her divorce and how it had impacted her. Although our stories were very similar, I stayed silent. In the past I would have attempted to show empathy by bringing up my story, but I realized that part of my life was receding into the background of my picture, and I no longer felt like rehashing those details. What I noticed immediately was a sense of freedom. I did not need to carry that heaviness in my energy field anymore. I will not say that I am not affected by all that I have experienced, but I will say that letting that relationship stay in the past and working through those emotions, frees me up for my current relationship.
Thinking like a 5-year-old can be advantageous to all of us old farts. By placing an emphasis on what we deem to be important and leaving the rest out of our picture we can start to imagine a new life. At the very least we might try drawing unwanted experiences smaller or in the background of our lives. We can even leave space on the page as this tyke did for the universe to fill in our pièce de résistance with images that are beyond our wildest dreams! Remember that when an artist signs a picture it signals to him or her that their masterpiece is now complete. I would advise you to go as far as sweet Cam and add the word by, so you are super clear that it is by your hand or how you choose to focus your energy that you are living your reality. Choice equals power and sister, yours is always with you.
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