The Three Temptations And Responsibility

It seems to me, at least it is what I have noticed over the years, is that when I have had an ‘aha’,or acquired a new skill, or reclaimed an unused ability that the next phase I enter into consists of what I have come to refer to as the three temptations. This is where I am invited, by life, to buy back into the negative unwanted condition or action. I have found that if I reinvest myself into what my wonderful aha has just freed me up from I am right back in the proverbial soup -dumbed down and remembering how nice it was out of the soup but without a clue as to the process, action,cognition or what have you that popped me out of it. These three witches seem to arrive rather quickly and even if I get myself past the first two if I buy into the third….I’m just as hooped. This has led me to labeling the phenomena, the “three temptations of Christ” or the “three witches of Macbeth”. When I’m smart,when I am willing to take responsibility, I am on the lookout for them because once I’ve past through these gates I am indeed free of the old game or unwanted manifestation. I don’t know if this is true for others, but I’ve certainly stepped back into the dodo when I am not mindful. Generally I end up back thereby lying to myself, “one more time won’t hurt anything”, or, “maybe it will be different this time.” Like how could be when it’s the same stupid set up. Sometimes I have simply ignored the witches and other times I have “forgotten” about them.

Having recognized that there exists on this planet such a vast gap between reality and truth that there may well be room for several more solar systems in the void I decided I would much rather take responsibility for the truth than any number of complex realities created out of the simple agreement that things are thus and so. I made the decision making it a practice to assist others rather continuing with my practice of going into sympathy with them and by buying in to their stories/realities. The three witches I am about to tell you about quickly flew in to tempt me into holding fast to some less than optimum realities. The first witch which landed I will call - Witch One. Here is her story........

A young girl who has just been accepted into one of the most prestigious art schools in North America, was over for a visit. She was to start in September and while she was waiting for her student visa to come through (she is from the US)she was cleaning stables and feeding horses. She loved the horses and did not mind the work. But there she sat before me, beyond miserable as she recounted to me the number of owners who were making her life a living hell and reducing her to tears on a daily basis. Needed the money, needed the job; did not need the abuse. She wanted to quit. She wanted to turn down her acceptance. She wanted to retreat across the 49th parallel.

To give you a bit of background on the owners - A bit of Canadian history, particularly British Columbia is that certain areas were predominantly settled yea those many years ago, by the second son’s of British nobility. Here they duplicated the large, landed estates and all the trappings that went along with where they had spent their childhoods. These colonists are more British than the British and still adhere to traditions that have been considerable watered down in the “motherland” with the passage of time.

Existing in this time warp, their days are spent “gadding about” and figuring out new and wonderful ways to spend the gobs of money dolled out to them through trusts. They treat their stable “help” worse much worse that is been cleaned out of the stalls and mete out much the same treatment to anyone else they deem to be “beneath” them. As I am listening to this young girl pour out her distress as to how she is being treated I can feel this vortex of energy building up and sucking me into it. I used to ride in the Fox Hunt with many of these people and those of their ilk. I know of what this young lady speaks. So I feel this vortex pulling at both my ankles and I’m having a real time of it keeping my coaching pants on.

I have felt the disdain of which she spoke directed towards me as I insisted on riding bareback in the “Fox Hunt” (major break with tradition) often with my hardhat on backwards as it tended to fall down on the bridge of my nose when going over jumps, thus impairing my vision. I was a particular thorn in the side to those who wore the “redcoats” but most tolerated me because of my parents who organized the scented route of the hunt utilizing our land as our neighbours. This coupled with the fact that if their well bred, dual named steeds, out of Noble Question by Kingdom Ruler refused a jump or a part of the run, I would bring my *Out of Kamloops by Truck* (see footnote) wonder horse Jerry to the head of the field and lead these horses at least two names city-slicker pampered sissies through whatever it was that was distressing them – most often it was mud. One day one “chap” could no longer contain his outrage and riding up tome with steam trailing behind him he puffed out in a very commanding tone, “You are dismissed from the field.” I shot back at him the only defense I could grab onto, “You can’t dismiss me, my parents are…..so and so….. Well what can I say, feeble yes, taking responsibility no, but it worked. All this came to mind and much, much more as the young girl was sharing her story and I could feel the pull…BIG SUCKING WITCH ONE….and what pulled me out was“agreement creates reality which is different from the truth”. I recognized that I could not help her if I continued going into agreement with her on how horrible these people were and how victimized she was by their treatment. Another pull out of the sucking vortex – in order to help the person in front of me I had to put her FIRST. When I did that, a miracle occurred.

The sobbing, wretched girl left an aspiring artist with an amazing future ahead of her. All I did was ask her to take the viewpoint of an artist. Then I asked her if she could duplicate on canvas and in clay the features and moods of those people she was having difficulty with. She said that she could. I told her that Van Gogh swept floors and cleaned up paint for years before he picked up a brush. I asked her if she could view these people as stepping stones to her fulfilling her dream of becoming an accomplished artist by using these people as "models" - not to aspire to be like but to study as "subjects". "Yes, she answered excitedly, "yes, yes, I can!" Her face brightened even more as I asked her if she could imagine the people who were giving her a hard time now, clambering to purchase one of her works in the future, she’s an artist – she totally got the vision of that. Then I asked her if she could approach her work at the stables as part of her study to master her craft. She laughed and said, Yes! I phoned her a couple of weeks later and asked her how it was going at work, she said, “It’s great, they don’t treat me like that anymore.”

This young lady is now currently finishing up her studies at the prestigious Emily Carr Institute ofArt and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia.

*Kamloops is a city in the heart of "cattle country" in the interior of the province of British Columbia. For those of you unfamiliar with horse breeding the bloodlines are traced through dam and sire with the offspring being referred to as Out of (name of dam) By (name of sire). While the other "steeds" in the hunt were as blue blooded as their owners, Jerry was the horse version of a mutt hence my description of his bloodlines - Out of Kamloops by Truck (the means by which he was transported to the Fraser Valley in the Lower Mainland area of the province)

I did not approach working with this young lady with the perspective of my gaining something out of it but what I received from doing this simple little thing while being very present with this talented but distraught young lady is that the entire game that I was born into and that has been ongoing for generations in my family, came to view – both sides of the game! It is one that I have wrestled with and it most certainly did drag on. But, by helping someone else, without any attention on me, me, me, I spotted the game, took responsibility for my part in it and it’s a done. I am no longer at the effect of that particular "game" being run on me and I am mindful of not running it on others because this time the well-being of the young woman sitting in front of me was more important than the game. No more will it drag me into situations and no more will it dragon my time, attention and energy. I have ceased to play it and by not buying in to seeing this young woman as a victim rather than who she really is and by not going into agreement with the "reality" of another or others. In the process of assisting her I not only freed her up from an unwanted condition – I brought the house down on Witch One – not even her red shoes were left showing!

Over the top of my rousing chorus of "Ding dong the witch is dead..." I failed to hear the tell tale sounds of Witch Two making her unwelcome way towards me!

Read on McDuff.......Witch Two will soon arrive on my Hubpages!