A View from a Tube©

Picture this!  You are floating down a tropical river in a large rubber inner tube. You float smoothly and effortlessly into a cave.  The light at the cave’s entrance is disappearing; there is only darkness ahead. A headlamp becomes your only source of light. Suddenly, in the dim light of your headlamp, you spot an object floating in the water.  Instincts warn you – something about this thing is familiar but you can’t quite place it.  You alert your guide (yes, you have a guide and companions on this trip), who paddles over to this thing.  You wait for the verdict and gasp in horror as he pulls a large hairy, leggy tarantula from the very water you are floating in.  It is very much alive!  You watch with your stomach in knots, barely concealing a shriek as he lets this creature walk up his arm, onto his head and to the back of his neck, where it settles, black, hairy legs grasping on for the ride.

Suddenly you grasp the reality that there could be more of these creatures in this river as your guide gleefully informs you that they fall off the walls and ceilings of these caves only to float to dry land.  What started out as a really cool, fun adventure now has an element of fear you hadn’t anticipated.  And you have two more hours to float (derriere first) down this river.  How vulnerable does that make you feel!

This was the scene in as my husband and I enjoyed our shore excursion - cave tubing it’s called - in Belize.  What happened?  The guide released the tarantula when we hit our first portage (on the shore opposite to where we landed) and we continued our float on this dark river through the gorgeous limestone caves of Belize.  Those of us who had seen the tarantula kept an eye out for more of these creatures or who knows what else! these caves and river had to offer us.

We had lots to talk about when we got back to the cruise ship but it wasn’t until we returned home that I realized what rich lessons for life this whole experience presented.  Here are three:

1.  Tarantulas make life interesting!
What made this trip fun and interesting were the unexpected scare, the challenging rapids (that’s another story!), not knowing where we were going and just enjoying being in the dark with our little headlamps – truly in the moment. How often do you expect or desire predictability as a matter of course?  How threatened do you feel when life throws you a curve ball?  What are the tarantulas in your life – those unexpected situations that evoke fear, excitement, perhaps revulsion yet you walk through them and have fun, gain insight, learn something and create a happy fun memory? 

2.  Allow yourself to go with the flow!
How often do you hold yourself to an agenda and schedule that is enough to qualify for basic training?

At times I’m in sync with the current of my life but often I’m not.  I’ve discovered in my zeal to live a disciplined life that I often go against the true flow of life – thinking that my agenda, my schedule, my ego wants and desires constitute the way it "should be".  I end up paddling upstream thinking I’m making headway and "progress" but in reality I’m fighting the flow, the true course of the river – and I don’t know that I am.  Being willful, intelligent, clever and stubborn I manage to succeed for a while – and feel quite successful and fulfilled.  Meanwhile the flow of the river of life continues to carry me despite my best efforts to influence it to my liking. Inevitably, I reach the point of exhaustion, have a meltdown, hit that proverbial wall and throw my schedule in the air.

What the river taught me is that when I allow myself to just float – to be in the flow of the river – to sense and anticipate its currents, to allow myself to just be in the inner tube of my life – I truly get to enjoy the journey.  That does not mean I throw all of my disciplines, wants and desires out the window, no!  It does mean that I focus on and tune into what is present in this moment.  I notice where I am being carried and where I am forcing solutions.  I let the tarantulas be there and ask for help!  The signs of my going against the current include anxiety, compulsion, feeling driven by have to’s, shoulds, gottas, if only’s, lack of perspective and fear.  Today, I pay attention to these messages – they are warning signs that I am fighting the flow.  When they pop up I stop, take quiet time, breathe, get centered and allow myself to move into the flow of surrender, acceptance, and trust.

The next time you experience any of these warning signs:

• Anxiety
• Compulsive activity – doing, buying, shopping, eating, drinking, etc.
• Feeling driven by have to’s, shoulds, gottas, if only’s
• Lack of perspective
• Fear
• And your own particular twist...

STOP and listen to the river of your life.  Then choose differently.  Choose to be in the flow! 

3.  Let your natural curiosity and intuition guide you!When I spotted the object floating in the cave I at first assumed it was a piece of trash carelessly discarded by some heartless, lazy tourist who had no respect for nature.  (I’m not quick to judge!)  Had I not sensed at a deeper level that something was odd about this floater, I would have let it go at that.  I acknowledged that inner prompting and allowed my natural curiosity to flow and asked the question.  My husband, also thinking it was a piece of trash, volunteered to paddle over and pick it up!  That would have been a scene!  I stopped him, again with a sense that this was not a candy wrapper and asked the guide to investigate.  And we got the tarantula!  Had I stayed with my original assumption the tour would have been deprived of the excitement and anticipation this creature provided and the respect for the reality that we were in the flow of nature here, not some Disney adventure.

How do you let assumptions rob you of life’s surprises?  How often are you quick to make up your mind about something – or some person – placing them in a box, categorizing it and putting it in it’s place in your mind? What opportunities and gifts are lost in these moments?  How many subtle inner intuitive urgings do you ignore because you don’t trust yourself, don’t want to make waves or deal with the consequences?  Notice your thinking, the assumptions you make the next time you sense something about a situation or person and ask the question – what is this, really?  Then wait for the answer.  You may be very, very surprised!

When you use your intuition to guide you, you tap into the river of your life, the flow of life from your Soul.  It is from this place that true fulfillment emerges.  Allow yourself to go with this flow and celebrate the tarantulas, the rapids and the smooth crystal waters that carry you forward.  Enjoy the view from your tube!

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