Friday, February 16, 2018

Playing Hooky From Life

Playing Hooky From Life ©2018 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC
The Truant's Log, R Hedley 1899'

When I was five, we moved to England. We hadn't found a school for me when my brothers went off to their new institutions in late August. I remember pulling the curtains in the living room in the day time so the truant officers couldn't see me playing hooky.

Now, there probably weren't truant officers in England, in the same way there were ones in the U.S. And I probably was only out of school for maybe a week, before I was enrolled in a girl's private school. I was five, and starting kindergarten probably wasn't as important as getting my brothers into appropriate middle and high schools.

Looking back, that whole experience was a huge shift in reality. I wasn't playing hooky, I was transitioning from one universe to another one. From suburban Maryland to the city of London. From running through backyards barefoot, to school uniforms and lace up shoes.

When I was fifteen, I lived in Canada. The teachers went on strike for 3 months in the middle of my grade 10. I wasn't exactly playing hooky during that time, as school wasn't happening. But I learned there were options and choices.

It was another huge shift in reality. It disrupted my path. If that hadn't happened, I would have gone in an obedient pattern through high school and college. Instead, after 2 1/2 years of high school, I went to college early. After 2 semesters of college, I went back to London at 18 and auditioned for drama school. I spent a year in drama school before being culled, moved back to the States... eventually ending up in a Mystery School in Seattle which set me on my true life path.

The point of this isn't my education. The point is about playing hooky from life, taking a break from expectations of what we're supposed to do so that we can reflect on what we want to do. So that we can make choices and take actions as greater Consciousness rather than just responding to what we "should" be doing.

These shoulds, these expectations, these supposed tos, are so deeply ingrained, they're invisible to us. We can't see how we're running off patterns that were installed generations back.

Sometimes it seems like life creates a pattern interrupt, moving you to a different country and culture, or distrupting a school year, setting into motion a series of events that puts you on a different life and career path than you thought possible.

And you can create your own breaks, whether it's a day a week or longer. To stop doing your regular routine and what's expected of you. To get your head clear to know what your heart is calling you to do. How your Essence wants to be expressed in this world. What you as Consciousness wants to experience instead.

We are scared to do this because it feels like our whole life may collapse, and we'll lose parts that are important to us. Yet when we do this as Consciousness, it can result in a gentle rearranging of reality, or finding your life falls into place more perfectly that you can imagine.

My experience of embodying Consciousness is that it's a lot less painful than forcing yourself to conform so that your parents can understand your choices, for example.

Consciousness is much more benevolent than society. Take a day off and discover how munificent this Universe really is.




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