When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

— Buddhist Proverb

I love to try to wrestle things to the ground.  It is in my nature.

Last week, I wrote about struggle.  Mine and everyone else’s. But what I came to learn – yes once again – is that struggling is optional.

Often, all we need to do is to stop.  Let go.

And ask.

On a recent morning, as I struggled to bring form and clarity to the work I do, I journaled: “Please, show who my next teacher is… .”  Days later, as I wandered aimlessly on Facebook, I clicked on the page of a Friend by the name of Patrick Combs.  (Patrick is powerful, inspiring and innovative.  If you are unfamiliar with him, run – don’t walk – to discover the cutting edge transformational work he does.) On his Wall that day, he had an invitation: a single ticket to join him as his guest at an event in San Diego entitled Big Mission, Big Sales, Big Life with Lisa Sasevich.

Now, I’d never met Patrick.  I had never heard of Lisa.  The conference was 3000 miles away.  I had a full office schedule and a full docket of pending cases.

And only days later, I was across the country standing in a meeting room with 400 people I didn’t know. Dazed and confused, I had no idea why I was there.

I knew only that I was supposed to be there.

In the middle of the first day, out of the crowd, appeared a woman in full stride who walked up and introduced herself to me.  She was looking for a student.  She would become my teacher. Unbeknownst to me, she also knew Patrick, who knew she was looking for a student, but who had no idea that we would ever connect.

From those three days came information and ideas and tools and relationships and opportunities and transformations that I had never imagined were possible.  And a wonderful wise teacher who will journey with me as I bring new purpose to my work. And the vision of exciting and generative work in the days and months ahead.

I had a hundred excuses – all thoughtful and rational – why jumping on an airplane was an inconvenient, if not dumb, idea. Instead, I went for an incredible ride.

There is the old adage “jump and the net will appear.”  But how hard it is to jump.   How challenging it is to hear what our intuitions whisper to us.  How we fight what our bodies call out to us.  Time and time again we endeavor to “muscle” our way through only to end up exhausted, depleted, and deadened; and wondering why we cannot find the answers.

Having a brain can be an impediment.  Often it gets in the way of our heart.  And our heart always knows the way.

The answers are nearer than near.  If we but inquire of the Universe, they will be shown to us.

To ask, to listen, to trust.

And then to act, even when we’re not sure where the ride might take us.

Stop by for a visit at Hampton Photography.