How many confirmations do we need?
The mission is always the same. You don’t want this mission. It was put upon you, and you are stuck with it – a constant interruption of your life: a monotonous, exhausting routine, weekly on the same road to the same destination. You hope all goes well; but that’s not always the case. Then finally back on the road, relieved to be heading home.
Transformation does not have to be a ‘Road to Damascus’ experience. It can be a simple down to earth occurrence. It can run into you – on the road at an intersection, moments away from a crash – that you miss by milliseconds. Your logical little gray cells reassure you that you escaped a misfortune by your well tuned rapid reflexes.
Yet, all the way back on the familiar road home, your heart thumps in your chest and in your ears. Deep breaths of oxygen begin to calm the inner beast of anxiety and fear, stemming from the reptilian brain. You begin to assess the situation. Was that a red light you raced through?
Logic prevails. And the next time, on the same road back home, you inspect that place of concern more attentively. There are four sets of traffic lights, close to each other. The one at a driveway, extending from a shopping area is illogical. Unexpected. That must have been the location that you missed. Your casual gaze did not anticipate that set of lights being there. Rather, your eyes must have focused on the near-by next set, which may have been green.
So yes! After the scrutiny, it appears evident. You probably did run through a red light. Therefore, it was you, who had been in the wrong. Nevertheless, you were able to avoid a potential atrocity. You had been averted from an oncoming collision. Did that mean two lives were spared from probable ruin? Yours and that of the other driver? Grateful for this reflection, the drive home is a gift that day. Arriving at this awareness signals that extra vigilance is required in the future.
Two weeks later, a letter arrives with a photo of the back of your car, exposing your licence plate. A camera had clearly caught the incident. The words state that you drove through a red light. A hefty fine is demanded. There can be no dismissal now. That black and white photograph before your startled eyes is a bleak, black tangible revelation.
This becomes the third time you examine that circumstance. Had it really been your rapid reflexes that had dodged a conceivable disaster? Or was it something else? Something undefined! Something influenced or assigned by the universe…. Whatever that was, it made you more frightened than you will ever bear and gave you a chance to be more thankful than you’ve ever felt. The visual reminder of that moment in time, becomes in fact ˗ the sea change ˗ the transformation.
Do we need palpable proof to demonstrate that something mystical might be at work in our lives? How many confirmations do we demand before we accept that in a black moment, the real message of transformation does come?
The lesson from the universe is at last transparent. You had been saved – and for a purpose: the weekly mission you perform is crucial and cherished.
Joseph Campbell points out: “At the darkest moment comes the light.”
Katalin Kennedy
April 2019
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