FW: The Intenders Bridge - Reminder #68 - The Magical Flow

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The Bridge ~

Reminder #68

The Magical Flow

You need not be concerned

about the future . . . only the Now

The first time I

consciously experienced the magic of the present moment BJ and I were building

a rock wall together. We'd just hired our friend, Toshi, to bulldoze a new

driveway on our property and when he was finished, the lower side of the road

needed to have a retaining wall constructed to keep the Kona afternoon rains

from washing away the dozer work. We had plenty of large rocks strewn about the

land and, since they were free, we decided to use them to build the wall.

When we began,

BJ showed me how to dig a flat footing - which was about forty feet long - put

up the batter boards and set the strings so the wall would be straight. At the

time, it looked to me like it would take us weeks to complete the job.

With the

preliminary work accomplished, he started placing the rocks with the flattest

side of each one facing outward and leaning ever-so-slightly into the hillside.

My job, since I was new at this, was to gather the best rocks and have them

ready for him to set in line. Needless to say, at first, the job crept along

very slowly. My work skills at that time were minimal, to say the least,

primarily because I had never really done much manual labor before. As a

result, BJ spent a lot of time idle, waiting for me to bring him the rocks he

needed.

After about an

hour of painstaking labor, we took a break and sat with our backs against the

first few stones he'd set into place. The view of the entire southern Kona

coast spread before us like a picture of paradise. BJ wasn't enjoying it like I

was, however. He was staring at me with a disapproving smirk on his face.

" Didn't

anyone ever show you how to work with someone else? " he asked me.

" No. "

I wasn't sure where he was going with this.

" Well, "

he said, " if we keep up our present pace, we'll be here all summer,

building this wall. You've got to wake up! "

BJ could be very

blunt at times. I'd learned not to take everything he said personally, but

sometimes it was hard. He knew how to push my buttons, and when he initially

introduced me to The Information, I agreed to allow him to test me so I could

see my weaknesses and eventually be free on all my buttons. Little did I

realize, when I made that agreement, that BJ was a Master at button pushing.

More than a few times, I'd end up walking away from a heavy conversation with

him, muttering and cussing about how he could be such a jerk to insult and

belittle me like he did.

I was just about

ready to walk away this time, too, when he caught me, only now he spoke in a

gentler, softer tone of voice. " One of the biggest problems in America

today, " he said, " is that people don't really know how to work

together. We've got all sorts of fancy, high-falutin' educational systems and

we soak up tons of knowledge, but very few are able to put it to good

use. "

I listened

because I needed the rock wall built. But my ego, which was puffed up because I

had a college degree, wanted to scream in reaction.

" People are

too isolated from one another nowadays, " he went on. " They work by

themselves, often in little cubicles, and never discover the joy that can come

from working as part of a team. They never get to step into the magical flow

which comes when two or more are concentrated on a common project. "

Now, I thought

to myself, we're getting somewhere. The magical flow sounded interesting to me.

" There's a

coming together - a Oneness - that can occur whenever two people are working

together and putting their attention on the same thing, he said. " It

doesn't matter if they're in an office, on an assembly line, or working in a

tool and dye shop. In our case, it can happen right out here in the middle of

the rainforest, while we're building this rock wall. But, we'd have to take

extra care - and keep an eye on what the other one is doing at all times.

" I can do

that, " I said, glibly.

" Well, up

until now, you haven't, " he responded. " If we're going to work

together, and have any hope of stepping into the magical flow, you'll have to

pay much closer attention to what I'm doing and make sure you have the next

rock ready for me when I need it. Otherwise, I'll be sitting around, twiddling

my thumbs, while you're out off in the woods somewhere, doing God knows

what! "

The bluntness

had returned, but blunt or not, I knew he was right. And besides that, my

interest was piqued. I wanted to check out the magical flow. So, from that

point on, not only did I gather rocks, but, at the same time, I watched what he

was doing. It involved me having to do two things at once, but, with a little

practice, I found that I was able to have the perfect rock sitting right there

for him, so he didn't have to move more than six inches to pick it up and place

it in the wall.

By the time we took our next break, the sun was high overhead and,

without me even noticing, several hours had passed. I'd been so focused on the

project at hand that it was like the rest of the world had gone away. I never

worked so hard and felt so good! I'd experienced a state of Oneness, as sweet

as any I'd ever had in my meditations or prayers. And, to top it all off, when

I looked around me, there were fifteen feet of wall, five feet high, already

backfilled and standing at the end of the day. A whole lot of work had gotten

done while we were in the magical flow.

My Intention for today is:

I Intend that I am in the flow where Great

Mystery

and Miracles abide.