Be an April FOOL!

The Fool

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I have a coaching client who is a real joy to work with! Though she is experiencing major (and I mean major) challenges in her life that would be enough to floor many mortals, she does what she can to walk forward in authenticity and trust and everything just falls away! At least that's the way it appears to me.It's like when we're bold and prepared to walk forward courageously in truth - I know I've said it before - but the whole universe comes to our aid... (as Goethe, I'm aware, once said).It's something about trusting what I like to call 'the divine' (but you can substitute the universe/ Source/ God, even Life, here). And when we're willing to put ourselves out there, opening our heart and saying 'yes' to life (effectively living from the power of our soul), then that's when the divine can reach us. When we're closed to it (and it's always us that does the closing), despite the array of opportunities, gifts and signs it may patiently provide for us, nothing gets through - and we remain in the dark.Anyway, I put this thought out on Facebook a while ago and a number of you got in touch, saying you'd experienced the same. Some, however, said they'd experienced exactly the opposite - that the moment you 'put yourself out there', ie, as inspirational author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, put it once, when you 'stand out on deck and shine your soul', the more difficult life becomes.And yes, in one way, that's true. As I see it, at a certain point on our path, when the soul realises we 'mean business' and we want to clear our pathway of all untruth and open to who we are at our core, then it starts to throw up everything that's in the way of our full self-realisation... everything that we have still to work on within ourselves is progressively thrown up in front of us for us to work through. At least that's how I've experienced it - and I've seen it over and over in the courageous souls that I've worked with - the ones that 'really mean business', that is.But the trick is not to be fooled by this - and to read the subtle messages behind what is going on. Life, the universe and everything is not ganging up on us here - it is bringing to our attention exactly what we need to work with in order to move forward on our path. Our job is simply to learn to read the signs and symbols - to learn the lessons and move on through.But what I'm trying to intimate here is that when this kind of thing starts happening in our lives it is a good thing and that it's an indication that we're 'getting somewhere'. At least that's the way I see it in the lives of the people I'm working with - and   my own, of course!Anyway, this discussion brought to mind of one of the cards in the pack of 'oracle cards' a dear friend gave me some years ago. It depicts a man stepping out over the side of a cliff, a flower in his hand and a look of rapture on his face (I dug it out and it's pictured here). In the deck of cards this card is called The Fool. But the point is, this man is no fool. In fact, he's quite the opposite. He's quite literally stumbled on a universal truth: that the moment we step off a metaphorical 'cliff' in ourselves - the very thing that our soul is calling us to do - all manner of wonderful support comes to our aid. (I'm not advocating cliff- leaping-for-real, here  - I'm talking metaphorically, of course!) And he's called The Fool because of the childlike innocence and trust he's operating from. And those of us that operate from this place, of course, are under no illusion that it's a foolish place to operate from. In fact it's one of the most intelligent - and powerful - places in the universe - the place from where we can hear the voice of the soul.If you'd like to talk this through with me, or book a transformational coaching session, just drop me a line or join the discussion on Facebook!