How do you decide when an event is not a lesson but just a happening?

[MonSno_LeeDra]

How do you decide when an event is not a lesson but just a happening?

One of the earliest lessons I can recall from my grandfather is that one must watch for many times a lesson will be delivered in broad daylight. At times it would seem funny until I recall my grandmother doing much the same to me and my sisters. Questions about things that seem normal yet the very presence of them at the time made them abnormal or alien.

Some lessons easy to spot. The oppossum out in daylight usually ment something was wrong with it as they are nocturnal. The dog with head low, fangs barred and raised fur. Underground water from the run of Sycamore tree's, the green of grass over water lines, etc.

All those easily to see and understand. Heck even the suttle difference in sound of a wind coming in over the moutains vice coming over the seea or an open field.

Some sound and real others maybe not so real. Hang a dead black snake on a fence and it will rain till you take it down. A bird in the house a sing someone is going to die.

But what of the more suttle lessons and omens. Not every bird or creature is a teacher at all times. Not every four leg or winged person a lesson to learn from. What of the stone people and the water peoples?

Yet go on a vision quest and what makes the eagle in the sky a lesson this day but not another? Look at the Herron in the water and what makes the lesson today but not tomorrow? Watch the ants crawl along the ground and a lesson today but tomorrow you don't even notice them.

Why is it that when the tree branch touches you today visions and images fill the mind and a lesson unfolds but yesterday nothing? Close your eyes and listen to the wind and voices carry loudly but move just an inch and nothing.

While I can't speak for, all for me the presence of "Spirit" makes me linger upon the item or makes it seem larger than life. Sometimes the call of the winged person will touch me and make me look to it. Sometimes the very fact its out of place or time is the trigger.

Unfortunately, thier are times when I want it to be something special and it is simply mother nature unfolding her routine. Yes lovey to my eyes and ears but no lessons, no purpose for me alone. Simply the cycle of life going on before me but I am both part and parcel of the picture.

Sometimes it would be nice if Herron said "Carl, watch here or learn this" but that doesn't happen. But then again that little tingle on the base of the neck, that echo in your ears, that tickle in your nose, that sense of being watched, the voice that floats on the wind only you hear.

[cheddarsox]

Everything that happens is "just" an event, unless I allow myself to learn something from it, then it is a lesson.

I don't think it's preplanned and packaged. We learn...or not...as we go, and we have the potential to learn from everything that happens.

[BlackLili]

Unfortunately, their are times when I want it to be something special and it is simply mother nature unfolding her routine.

To me these are the same thing. I'm with the Chedda on this one. All events are learning opportunities - just sometimes they sink in differently.

My Father, who has been a coach for about 15 years or so, who taught me to coach and teach others, has a theory on lessons. "You can explain a concept 49 different ways to someone, and only by explaining it the 50th different way might they understand. If you don't seem to be getting your point across, find a different way of conveying your message."

I think Nature just gives us lots of chances to understand.

[aranarose]

:lol: I'm here agreeing with BlackLili and cheddarsox, everything is a lesson. There is always something to be learned, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

[Belgalad]

I think nature is always going about its own way. It's when the spirit nudges you to being the right place, take note of it, pay attention to it, study it more closely, and perhaps infer a lesson from it, that there's a lesson to teach.

Mama Nature is pretty big, with some pretty big concerns, and I don't believe she's got the time or the inclination to make up little teaching scenarios for individual folks to be presented with and learn from. It's way easier, and way more effective, to just gently push you into the right place to see a creature or an event that would have been there anyway, or to notice something you don't usually notice, or to look more closely at something you pass by every day, than it is to make up a lesson plan and deliver it to your doorstep.

[skilly-nilly]

I'm chiming in to disagree.

I think that, yes, we can take a teaching lesson out of everyday occurrences and the normal actions of other animals than ourselves but that there is a whole 'nother level of 'Message' that is the action of a Deity Speaking to us through the manipulation of natural events.

So while "Everything that happens is "just" an event, unless I allow myself to learn something from it, then it is a lesson" is valid, it's something that's happening inside the perceiver's own head and at their instigation.

I believe that Deities can choose to Speak to us not for our asking but at Their will. We can then decline to listen, but the message will be sent anyway. So when some slightly-more-than-natural event occurs (I believe further that the animal/wind/stone/whatever participants agree to be God-Driven) Someone's behind it. This I believe isn't happening in your head like the 'every-thing's a lesson' sequence.

I believe in the Gods, and since I'm a polytheist I believe in a lot more Gods than just 'Mamma Nature'. I also believe that the Gods have all the time and attention there is, so there's no real limit to how Present They may be.

So how do I decide?
Easy to answer,
I wait for further confirmatory Messages

I research and ponder in order to access how far outside of 'normal' the event is

and I listen for the Other-Worldly 'hummmmmm' that goes with Communication from the Gods.

[RainInanna]

I agree with everyone so far.

I wish people had the confidence to realize more often when it seems like a lesson or there's more to coincidence it can be their higher self and intuition taking something important from an event, whether it's a specific deity or no. If I am to realize my higher, sacred self, is not divorced from The Sacred, I can appreciate the thoughts and nudges that come, without trying to define "this comes from my sacred self" or "that comes from god". If it makes me think, makes me realize something, well that's just as valuable and important.

I see this especially in people who talk about dreams - "what does this mean!!!" - well, what do you think it means? It doesn't have to be A Big Message From God. It can be just as valuable when it's your unconscious, Sacred self revealing something to you.

[MonSno_LeeDra]

I agree pretty much with what everyone has said. Let's face it the song is right "Life's a dance we learn as we go"....

Thank you for the responces as it gives me a little more to think about and ponder.

Thank you RainInanna, the concept of higher self and intuition is something I had not though about.

[Belgalad]

but that there is a whole 'nother level of 'Message' that is the action of a Deity Speaking to us through the manipulation of natural events.

I really have a hard time imagining that I'm important enough for Deity to take time out of Her day and try to converse with me directly as an individual.

That kind of thought actually scares me. Like attracting the principal's attention, x 1 zillion. I either did something really, really good or, more likely, astoundingly horribly bad.

[skilly-nilly]

I really have a hard time imagining that I'm important enough for Deity to take time out of Her day and try to converse with me directly as an individual.

That kind of thought actually scares me. Like attracting the principal's attention, x 1 zillion. I either did something really, really good or, more likely, astoundingly horribly bad.

I really believe that a Deity's time is infinite, so Her 'taking time' isn't an allotment, it's endless. I also think we're important to the Gods and They want to Speak to us.

I think They want to speak to us even if we're not really speshul. It is scary, though.

[RainInanna]

I really believe that a Deity's time is infinite, so Her 'taking time' isn't an allotment, it's endless. I also think we're important to the Gods and They want to Speak to us.

I think They want to speak to us even if we're not really speshul. It is scary, though.

Well, I imagine a polytheist who works to create ongoing relationships with specific deities would also not be as scared by one of them noticing that person. Since such a person would probably be used to recognizing the deity presence through ritual, trance, meditation, dream, etc. It would be more like a teacher noticing you then the principle, I guess?

[HedwigHarfang]

Everything that happens is "just" an event, unless I allow myself to learn something from it, then it is a lesson.

I don't think it's preplanned and packaged. We learn...or not...as we go, and we have the potential to learn from everything that happens.

As your sig quote suggests, you have it right here (in my opinion, of course). Our whole lives are one long lesson that we have chosen in spirit before we come in, and in many cases we are here just to experience human life and have no set destiny. My two bosses in government (Thatcher and Major) were just that - two young souls with time ahead of them for learning, but here to enjoy themselves, contribute to the world and try and do the best they could with the resources available. Sadly my life has been rather different, and knowing that I was here for a definite reason - that I am finally on the threshold of fulfilling - has made it tough going.

[Mesektet]

Its a simple meaningless "happening" when I cease to attempt to find meaning in it. Essentially, when I don't care.

[Tanya]

Everyting is speaking all the time... you have only to learn to listen....

I tell this to kids everyday, then I dip a bucket of water out of the pond and I tell them the water bugs are talking to me.... and they do.... because the more we know about them, the more they can tell us.

I can hit a river with a coupple grand's worth of fancy equipment to tell us all about pH, salinity, phosphates, and particulate loads at this momment....

or i can turn over a few rocks and hear all about the 'now' of the river in addition to 'what's been going on' based on the sorts of animals i find.


right now I'm engaged in a progect to 'talk to trees' My volunteers go out and following a scientific method, chart trees, undergrowth, debris on the foresst floor and can very acurately predict the health of a waterbody beside it...

and one of our staffers at the momment is doing the 'zen of algae' Algae aren't just gross, they too have an aweful lot to say about where they live.

back to your heron... a heron in a pond means 1 big thing.... FISH.