Stop - Look - Listen

an ode to slowing down

Covid. Stopped me in my tracks, ten days ago. I’m careful but not obsessive about wearing a mask everywhere I visit; perhaps I was reckless, though, as I see it, I was just living. Then the dreaded virus took up residence in my aging body. I can’t say it was a welcome visitor but it did make me stop in my tracks, giving me time to reassess my priorities.

“Stop - Look - Listen,” a saying most of us have repeatedly heard recited during our kindergarten years. “Don’t cross the road or the railroad tracks before you stop, look, and listen,” our parents, other adults, and teachers, cautioned. At age six, I didn’t have a clear image of what might happen if I didn’t Stop - Look - Listen, but based on the seriousness with which the phrase was delivered, I knew that it likely wasn’t a happy ending. So, I paid heed to the catchy-words and who knows whether that may have saved my young life.

I wish there were a Stop-Look-Listen phrase for adults who, from time to time, require assistance in pumping the brakes on our notion of time vs accomplishment, like how to end our frustration over endless to-do lists. A wise woman, a medium, once told me that her guides said I should “stop doing the dishes,” in order to free myself from the chains of the to-do list. Her guides admonishment has helped me to remember the dishes are not as important as time with my family, my shamanic practice, and last but not least, progress in writing my memoir.

Despite my spiritual nature, and advice from the medium’s guides, I sometimes forget that my to-do list is much more like a merry-go-round than it is like an endless mental recitation of things to do. With a tempo that mirrors the sound of the merry-go-round’s calliope, we’ve all seen children mount wooden horses while others disembark. Similarly, I cross things off my to do list, replace them with more to-do’s, and on and on, like the ever-moving circular motion of the merry-go-round.

Visualizing this merry-go-round effect takes a large bite from the sting of my frustration when thoughts turn to an endless number of things that need to be done.

Another approach, that’s worked reliably well to relieve my frustration, and move away from the pile of dirty dishes, is my daily practice of transfiguration, a sacred devotion that provides a soulful experience of the Divine within. This simple, yet profound, practice provides the sublime experience of ‘The All One,’ an inner experience of our individual divinity being One with the entire cosmos.

In the early 2000’s I was introduced to transfiguration as a spiritual practice by Sandra Ingerman, my primary earth-bound shamanic teacher. Though transfiguration is not considered an historical or traditional practice of our ancestral shamans, it provides the goal of all shamanic experiences - the actuality of life beyond the physical and the miraculousness of spirit-infused healing.

I highly recommend transfiguration as a daily (or almost daily) practice for anyone who seeks peace in their internal and external lives. I’d like to introduce you to this miraculous practice, but it’s not possible here, as it requires personal instruction by a trained person, like myself, followed by the guided experience of transfiguration’s depth

If you haven’t previously been instructed in this sacred practice, and you’d like to learn, please send a comment or question through the link below; perhaps I’ll host a Zoom lesson if an adequate number of you are interested.

In the meantime, practice envisioning the merry-go-round when you’ve become frustrated by the seemingly endless to-do list. And when all else fails, stop doing the dishes and enjoy life!

Blessings and Love, Dory