By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking

There is a bulletin board in the mail room of a South Florida community association. Maybe the one you live in. Most of the items pinned to the board are placed there by the association’s management, neatly placed with a push pin placed at each corner. There is a desk organizer on a shelf at the bottom of the bulletin board containing pens, pencils and a generous supply of push pins.

With some regularity others have occasion to place notices on the bulletin board and here is where an interesting phenomena frequently occurs. Although there is an ample supply of push pins readily available and easily accessible, these notices are haphazardly pinned to the board with push pins purloined from the corners of other notices. The other notices are not left hanging with one corner loose, rather their pins are removed and re-pinned so that two notices are left raggedly posted by one pin at the center in the top and one at the center in the bottom.

Eventually it is not unusual to find more notices all suspended by a single pin while the reservoir in the organizer remains overflowing. A lazy person would use the pins from the organizer, even if only one; it would be easier than rearranging the ones already in use. A deep seeded sense of lack demonstrates as the appearance of poverty even where abundance is within arm’s reach.

Our true beliefs manifest in the simplest ways. Being alert to the clues, even the little ones, can change the course of our lives. Imagine if one day the persons denying themselves the use of the ample supply of push pins awakens to their folly. Out of pride they may continue as they always have and there would be no change, except that now they know there is a better way so there is that extra baggage to tote around.

Say they realize it is easier and neater to use the extra pins and start doing so right away. They will have allowed themselves to release an old idea and move into a new experience. In the world of dragon fighting mythologies this is the single armor scale being torn away; an occurrence that never ends well for the dragon.

Where else in their lives have they been denying their wealth? Where have they been hording an endless supply? Is there something holding you back, or is it something you are holding on to? What clues are you overlooking, and what are you ready to let go of?

Many of us go through our entire live never knowing we have control over how we feel, never knowing we can change the course we are on at any time. Sometimes we need an ah-ha moment to stimulate our attention. Nature has many tools to bring that about; some more appealing than others. One choice we can make is to be proactive by employing our own tools first.

Tool number one, Understanding our True Nature: These individual lives we are living are just cells in a much bigger organism. The evidence? Everything that lives finds a way to cluster with other living things, we are collaborative beings, suggesting a connections that transcends the physical. We have commonalities that we build upon. At basic levels we are all alike, laughing, crying, lusting, caring etcetera.

Tool number two, Understanding the nature of that bigger organism. It is Love. The evidence? It gives us whatever we believe. It does not judge us. It just gives. It is infinite. There is no outer edge. Wherever we perceive an outer edge, it continues beyond our comprehension.

Tool number three, pathfinders. Pathfinders are those in our acquaintance that have already traveled the road ahead, they know where the water holes are and the quick sand. Every spiritual practice has pathfinders. Whether they are called minister, monk, rabbi, mullah, or friend they can help us see things we have been overlooking or didn’t even know to look for.

The universe overflows with push pins. We can use them or not. We can make our lives better or continue as we are. We can use the tools at our disposal or continue scratching at the dirt with our hands. Still not sure you can do it? Stick a pin in that doubt and talk with a pathfinder. You can always come back to your status quo, though never quite the same.

Learn more about your true nature, your connection to the infinite and the pathfinders available to you at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.