Travel Blog : March 24th, 2017
From time to time, I get overwhelmed and feel as though many of my thoughts collide, and clarity is no longer there. Sometimes, it even gets to the point where my mind is so crowded with thoughts that when someone asks me a question, I’ll begin to stutter because I can’t clearly articulate what's going on inside of my mind. It's like I have a stack of paper in my hands, and instead of them being neatly sorted, they fall everywhere all at once. When this happens, my spirit tells my mind, “We need to fast”. I immediately go into prayer, and decide what I am fasting from or in some cases from who.
Normally, I will eliminate TV or Social Media, possibly alcohol or cigars. However, this particular time, I decided to eliminate my emotional dependence on some people so that I could be by myself. I told those closest to me about the fast, and that I would be a little distant for a few days as a result. From that point, I began meditating, and these three thoughts came to me.
Ulysses you need to learn how to:
1. support
2. be patient, and
3. see more: open your eyes to what's really in front of you and use that information in your decision making.
These thoughts resonated with me because much of the overwhelming feeling that I had was because I was struggling with how to fully support someone very close to me. As a result I was losing patience with this person, and others; and I wasn’t taking time to see how negatively all of this was affecting myself and others.
I immediately prayed and asked for an abundance of patience. I asked God to teach me how to support, because I am a great provider and fixer, but I haven’t always known how to be supportive in friendships and intimate relationships. I also asked that my eyes be more open so that I could see clearly and more distinctly. Then I apologized to myself, the creator, and to those affected by my actions.
The next morning, I woke up meditating about patience, and it just so happened to be a travel day. So I took a shower, packed my bags and looked at my Uber app to check the price to the airport: $53. I decided it was too expensive and that instead I'd walk outside and catch a taxi, which would be cheaper. Sure enough, as soon as I went outside, a taxi came straight away (as my British friends would say).
“Boss, where are you going?” the taxi driver said.
"LaGuardia, Terminal C.” I told him.
He asked me how I wanted to get there, and I told him that I trusted him and I buried my head in my phone. At this point, I had more than enough time to get to the airport. The driver said that he appreciated that I trusted him and he proceeded to talk my ears off.
Sidebar: I always feel like I have a sign on my forehead that says: EVERYONE, PLEASE TALK TO ME IN THE MORNING, AND INTERRUPT MY QUIET TIME.
My normal “pre-fasted” self, would have been upset, thinking: "dude shut up and drive”. This time, I heard a small voice say, “Don’t worry, you’ll make your flight, just be patient”. So, I proceeded to talk to the driver, and learn a lot about him, until finally I said, “Sir, you are amazing, but my flight is boarding in 10 minutes”. He understood and literally sped the rest of the way to the airport, and I made my flight.
The moral of the story for me is that I need to be patient and trust the process. Many times in life, we lack patience because, in my opinion, we don’t trust the process and even less the outcome of that process. Personally, I tend to rush things because I think I need to figure out the way to guarantee the result I desire.
However, now, as a daily practice, I've decided to make room to hear that small voice that tells me to be supportive, be patient, and to take the time to actually see what's in front of me.
