Monday, March 08, 2010

Honoring the Inner Prompting

This past weekend, I was once again reminded of the importance of paying attention to inner promptings.

I was out running errands, and stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items. This was my last stop in a series of errands that particular day.

As I was getting ready to load my groceries into my car, I reached into my coat pocket to get out my car keys. As I grabbed my keys, I felt my coveted purple jawbone (bluetooth wireless headset for my cell phone). I was wearing a short leather jacket. I thought to myself, "Nola, you know better than to put that headset in the pocket of this coat. The pockets are shallow, and very angled. Some day... you are going to lose it!"

I unlocked the car, loaded my groceries into the trunk and drove away. I only got a few blocks down the road when I reached into my pocket to retrieve the headset. I always wear it when I drive.

The headset was not in my pocket!

Dang it! I knew instantly that the very moment I was telling myself I would lose my headset... I had lost my headset!

I quickly turned my car around and returned to my grocery store's parking lot. The parking space I had been in on my first trip was now occupied by another car. I got out of my car and looked all around on the ground where I had been parked. I got down on my hands and knees and looked underneath the car that was in my previous parking spot. No headset.

I walked all around the area and examined the ground. Nothing. I got down on my hands and knees again, and looked under all the cars in the immediate area. No headset.

I was on my knees 3 different times looking around the parking lot to no avail. I went back into the grocery store, went back to the check out line I had been in. I talked to the checker. They hadn't found anything.

The manager took me to the office and she looked in the lost and found. It wasn't there. I left my name, phone number and a description of my lost headset with them, just in case someone turned it in. I left the store, feeling a bit dejected.

As I walked towards my car, I decided to do one last check of the area around where I had been parked on my earlier visit. I got down on my hands and knees for a fourth time to look for my headset. Nothing.

I walked to my car, and unlocked the door. Just then, I heard a woman's voice say, "Excuse me... did you lose a bluetooth headset?" My heart lept! She had my beautiful purple jawbone headset in her hands.

She went on to explain that she had found it in the parking lot on her way in to work out at the gym (which is housed in the same building as my grocery store). She turned it in to the front desk, but had just noticed me on my hands and knees looking around in the parking lot and knew it must be mine. She had run out to give it back to me before I drove away!

Wow!

If I hadn't gotten down on my hands and knees a 4th time to look for the headset, she wouldn't have seen me and it would have been lost to me... forever! I hadn't even thought about going in to the other business that share that parking lot. She didn't see me looking around earlier, and she missed me being on my hands and knees the first three times!

If I hadn't honored that inner prompting to search under that car for the fourth time, the outcome would have been negative!

If I'd honored my first inner prompting (that told me I shouldn't put that headset in my pocket, and warned me that I was about to lose it) I wouldn't have lost it in the first place.

We have a deep inner guidance and wisdom that is always available to us. Some call it God, Spirit, the Universe, Higher Self. Whatever we call it, it is there for each of us, and it is always trying to communicate with us. All we need to do is listen.

The more we listen, the easier it gets to hear the messages. I know better than to ignore it, and yet sometimes... I do.

Listen to and honor your inner promptings... they are the voice of truth, trying to direct your steps!