A teacher once said: “If all else fails, keep moving”. I like it.

We all know the despondent feeling of getting into a rut and seeing no way out. We ask ourselves: where is the door? Or which of the many doors within my grasp do I open?

If we are stationary long enough; things, stuff, events will begin to dominate us. Our soul, the Living Spirit within, begins to wither. This can be incredibly frustrating and if not addressed a passive despair can set in where we are strangled by the interminable energy of “nothing new”.

Last year I was walking in the rainforest in Australia and I took some photographs that illustrate what can happen when we allow things to grow over us and dominate our lives. I wrote about the strangler fig here in another post. The fig begins it’s life as a vine and over many decades matures to a tree – albeit a swiss cheesy sort of one. And in between these two incarnations it insidiously suffocates it’s host.

We don’t like the feeling of things growing over us – of people and events in our life impinging and suffocating us. But by moving our energy such influences are minimised. This propensity for movement is innate in all of us and can be a physical activity or some sort of spiritual quest. The key is to not remain stagnant. So to clarify, by “moving” we don’t have to be flying around the planet or even physically mobile (if one is hobbling around on one leg). Our physical space may not be any indication of how trapped we can become. We can live in one place all our lives and our energy can be fresh and moving; our thoughts can be lively and new. Every day there are new challenges and new beginnings. That’s what we’re here for – are we not? – a quest to experience the splendour of humanity, even if we are at home pottering about in the back yard.

I see this idea of moving our energy along as forms of change. Change can be a challenge – even difficult. But it can be simple – even if it’s something like moving the couch. Why not. Move the bloody thing! It changes the energy of the room. People will come over and say “why on earth did you put the couch up on the coffee table?” You can say..”well I wanted to raise my energy up a bit when I watch the tele”.

I love it when people get out of their comfort zones and do unusual things. A friend, in her 60’s, recently needed a change and decided to travel. But this wasn’t Contiki tours. She whisked up her dog and set off driving for a trip around Australia – in a caravan. Last I heard she was in North Queensland. Another friend Matt (We have never met but converse on-line), he decided to go to India to refresh his energy – some sort of Ashram I think it was. He doesn’t take it too seriously though – he says: “I’m back from India, and now that I can walk through walls and safely handle cobras, the USA ought to be a breeze!”

One of the best ways to “keep moving” is dietary change. Our behaviour, our wellbeing is incontrovertibly linked to what we eat. Even small changes can shunt you in a new direction. It may give you a lift, bringing a fresh energy into your life. No harm in trying different things. With diet I think simplicity is the key. If it gets too complicated it morphs into a strangler fig.

“Even if you are on the right track, you can be run over if you just sit there” Will Rogers

But if you want to physically move (such as your place of residence, your job, go on an extended holiday from your partner for several years or decades) and you don’t know which door to open, what do you do? In a metaphysical sense there are no right choices. No door is really better than any other. But I would say, that if it’s not a reasonably big YES in your heart and mind, then don’t open that door – stay. Staying is OK as there may be no indication that to move to Peru and live with the Quechuans or to take up sky diving at this particular juncture is the right choice.

But don’t hang around forever like the big tree in the rainforest. If you feel the strangler fig moving over you, then it’s time to giddy up and go: any door will do.

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