I looked up Clear on http://www.dictionary.com this week and good heavens … no wonder the English language is so difficult to learn! There are 74 ways to use that little word. It can be used as an adjective, an adverb, a verb or a noun. I am focusing on definition #1 free from darkness, obscurity or cloudiness, and #8 entirely comprehensible, completely understood.
Synopsis: If I can become clear in my ability to organize and relay information to others, if I can organize my thoughts in such a way as to make them easily understood, I believe that shift in thinking will be key in developing a clear view of who I am. That process could help me to finding my peaceful center.
Since I started this project on New Year’s weekend, something has happened each week to focus me on one of the 40 items I want to work on “being” this year. That event didn’t happen until Wednesday this week … as I was reviewing the 40 post-it notes I have on my bathroom wall. Knowing that I was partnering with a new employee to accomplish the work for the day, I decided that the task would be enhanced if I was “clear” in my instruction. So off we went and I was less then clear about my expectations. When he chose his own path to accomplish the work, and I was hesitant to correct him for fear of rocking the boat, I was forced to acknowledge that “being clear” is a difficult challenge for me.
I am so busy trying to cajole everyone along, and keep everybody happy, that I just don’t lay the tasks and expectations out clearly enough. The result is that, while we get the job done, it is not always done with harmony. The lesson for me is to become direct and get on with the task at hand. This realization reminded me of a long ago experience that taught me this lesson. I put that experience on the shelf … but it is so relevant that I need to hold it front and center if I make the choice to “Be Clear.”
For 15 years, I had the pleasure of living with Betty Beagle. She joined my family on a drizzly Good Friday when she parked herself at my car door in a grocery store parking lot. When I came out of the store … what could I do but invite her into my car, my house, and my life. It turned out that Betty Beagle was the embodiment of pure joy. Everything she did, she did with happiness and humor. To watch Betty be Betty brought me outside myself to savor the true magic of being alive.
Betty was a hunter and every morning she ventured out to see what she could find. She usually came home for a mid-day nap and then often went out for an afternoon/evening foray. This made me nuts as I worried about her, even though we lived in the middle of a 1,000 acres of happy hunting grounds. I asked an animal communicator friend of mine to ask Betty to be in before dark each evening. Betty agreed that this was doable and to my complete astonishment, she honored her agreement for several weeks. One fine summer evening, she didn’t return at dusk and I began to worry. The evening deepened, still no Betty. As I sat in the garden, awaiting her return … I marveled at the huge, bright full moon … and burst out laughing as Betty ambled up the drive toward me. It was still light in her interpretation!! The moon cast a mystic glow over the landscape and her eyes, so superior to my own in the dark, didn’t register it as “dark” at all! The lesson: I thought I had been clear, in my mind I was clear … but Betty saw a different reality from mine.
So to “Be Clear” I have to start thinking in terms of 1.) What do I want to accomplish, 2.) How can a break the task into simple, doable steps, and 3.) If I am asking someone to help me, how can I convey the mission to them in terms that resonate with their value system. If I can do this, I will not only “be clear” in terms of reaching better understandings, but I will “be clear” in my energy because I will organize the clutter in my brain. That will be a win-win on all fronts!
What is your interpretation on “Be Clear” and what are ways that you have found to live in the moment and “Be Clear”?