The New Unfolding Story
Last night Anadi's friend 'the skinny grey and white cat' was chased off, by the dog who belongs to e couple who frequent Teide retsaurant each night as we do....
The desperate howls of the dog resembled an animal in great pain... But the truth was, that he was frustrated to be held by his lead and not free to chase the cat.
His instinct was to chase the cat, he is programmed to chase the cat...
The cat is programmed to run away, and run away it did. So far, that even when Anadi went searching for him with some chickens that he had squirrelled into his serviette, there was no sign, the cat was gone....
These instinctive responses are no longer really relevant in human psychology, over the years we have learnt how to overcome them... Instinct is something that is automatic and cannot be overcome...
As I watched the 'dog chasing cat' natural response, I reflected that once animals are domesticated then learned behaviour instead of instinct occurs, and cats can snuggle up to sleep with their dog friend...
Apart from when we were tiny and instinctively cried when in distress, and sucked to take in nourishment, so much of our behaviour as humans is learned....
The nature v nurture discussion is an ongoing one, and having talked with many people over the years about their early years, and explored with them how they came to be where they were now, here in the moment with me... It became evident that two siblings might have similar influences and conditioning but respond in totally different ways... Still affected by the 'nurture' but adapting to it based on their own energetic make up...
I was influenced as a young person by the Christian faith, and internalised that we 'came in' with 'original sin', and that our work on earth was to clear the darkness from our soul, and so live in the light....
I view this differently now, in that we do appear to 'come in' with our own unique energy, and this is evident in meeting any new little baby... They are themselves.
And my way of interpreting the original teachings I was given, has been to take full responsibility for every thing that 'happened to me' as a child, and recognise that I came in as me, with my own unique energy, and with ongoing 'work to do' which I have been working on for lifetimes... This orientation has helped me to work from the perspective that all I have encountered along the way, was me working out how to let go and be me....
From very early on I 'couldn't help' but 'take the naughty path'... And from early on I was told I was 'naughty'. I have vivid memories of my headmistress's face at school, when she told me she was 'disappointed in me'....
My own way of understanding all the childhood experiences, has been to seek to find out what I was trying to work out, and what adaptations I adopted to survive and in doing lose the true essence of my energy...
Nature and nurture work together...
And watching the cat and the dog do the same thing as they had done the night before...
And might well do again tonight, I reflected on how much we humans do the same things over and over. Even though the behaviours may not be coming from 'instinct', they are coming from our adaptations to our childhood and may be unconscious, meaning we stay in the same 'dog chase cat', Tom and Jerry type cartoon for lifetimes....
The sooner we take responsibility for all of our life, and become curious as to our programming and our unconscious behaviours the sooner we can run free...
Running this morning didn't feel that free...
I still could feel the rigours of the long hot run on Sunday and in truth it wasn't until all of the uphill sections of the loop, about 4 miles into the 6 mile run, were accomplished, and we were running smoothly downhill, all the way off the mountain through Capiliera and into Bubion that I started to warm into my running!
Mid afternoon I suggested we wander into the village for a coffee... We sat for a couple of hours enjoying cafe con leche... On impulse I ordered melon with ham and Anadi joined me with garlic soup...
We were alone except for one man, who sat smoking... The village was quiet. The sun had that 'close, can almost touch it, hugging you heat' to it, the mountains always there, were there, still and surrounding us.
I looked up and saw Anadi, a moment in time.
A cafe in Spain...
We did some guided writing... 'Where are we going..?'
The answer always the same
Trust the process of clearing any threads that hold you to the stories of past, trust what unfolds from there...
And enjoy the new unfolding story...!
