I was reminded yesterday of an old parable I adore. If you’re not familiar with parables, I think of them as psychoactive drugs that enter my system and alter my state of mind and perception. When I’m patient with a parable, I never emerge from the experience seeing the world quite as I did before.
They’re a trip. Literally.
Here’s one:
A Jewish Rabbi is walking by the sea when he hears a voice from up above him. The Rabbi looks up to see a Roman Centurion staring down at him from the edge of a bluff. “Who are you?” the Centurion says. “And what are you doing here?”
Stunned, the Rabbi says, “What did you say?”
The Centurion cranks up the volume of his already booming voice. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
The Rabbi walks toward the Centurion and says, “How much does Rome pay you?”
The Centurion tells him the amount.
The Rabbi says, “I’ll pay you twice that amount if you come to my house every morning and ask me those two same questions.”
Who are you?
And what are you doing here?
The mornings are psychologically thin spaces where our hearts and minds are more closely connected to the deep longings of our soul. Just upon waking can be a powerful time for setting the orientation to whatever posture we’d like to have for the day. Whenever I am working with a new client, I often ask, “What do you do first in the morning? Check your phone? Or check your phone while you’re peeing?”
Almost everyone smiles, because we all know how easy it is to squander the thin space of the morning by diving into whatever nonsense the world has for us on the phone. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes we like what we see. The market is up. Our team won the game. The sun plans to shine all afternoon. Others times it’s awful and a wave of anxiety leaps off the phone and into our chest, which suddenly feels tight.
Going to the phone first automatically puts you in a reactive state. You’re going to see something that you’ll then react to. You won’t have a choice about it. It’s a subtle but significant way we give our psychological power away.
Here is one way to take it back. Upon waking, acknowledge to yourself that you are in the magical land of transition between the unconscious and conscious. This is where your soul is most free to guide you. This is a special time that will not repeat itself until the following morning. You only get one shot. Sit with yourself for a few minutes in silence and listen for any messages from the deep. What does your soul have for you? What is God trying to get your attention around? What kind of person would you like to be today?
In other words, Who are you? And what are you doing here?
The world will be waiting for you. Why not spend some time with yourself first? That way, when you face whatever is out there, you’ll be a little more certain about who you are and what you are doing.
Happy Monday.
Peace and Love.