Everyman's Journal 2011, #10
© 2011 Rev. David Seacord
January 11
For years I opened Brazil nut shells the wrong way without realizing it. Then one day my neighbor (the one whose house I'd had the rattlesnake adventure under) calls to me over the fence "Hey, you want any of this stuff?", pointing to a pile on a table in his carport. Of course I said something like "I'll come look".
In the pile was a bunch of weird contraptions that I'd never seen before.... cool just to look at and try to figure out what it was, or was for, or how it was supposed to work. I love to figure stuff like that out... it's a 'curiosity talent', I guess. Anyway, there's this thing in a box that looks like a miniature carnival strongman sledgehammer "see if you can ring the bell" contest thing... only this thing works on it's side, and the box says it's a nutcracker. I take it out of the box, see an old instruction sheet still inside, and find after studying it a while that it's based on the wacko impact of a non-existent rubber band running the weighted wacker down a rail into the nut.
These days I'm pretty careful about the junk I collect, as just my own art stuff is causing me warehousing problems, and so when it became clear that my neighbor was hoping he was more selling than giving, I chose to let it go, as I knew I wouldn't have all that much use for it, really. (See what telling yourself the truth will save you from? Doesn't it just make you want to, God forbid (sic), own nothing?! )
So the point? OH, yeah.... well, I soon after bought a bag of unshelled Brazil nuts from a grocery store holiday display (because I'd read how high in selenium (tip: a very important mineral to have in your diet) they were, and started have a good time wacking them open with my carpenters hammer, a few a day. The upshot of all this is that I had a lousy batting average at opening them and getting the nut out in one piece. It almost never happened. Which is why, I eventually remembered, I normally didn't buy Brazil nuts unshelled, even though that makes them definitely fresher and less likely to be rancid. So, for the valor and glory of being a purist, I continued to wack the nuts the only way I'd ever known, with the same lousy results.... and a 'Praise You God' (or Allah, or Ram) when I got lucky....
Then, I got Really Lucky.... because 'while in the act', I remembered that crazy nutcracker. And with those memories came also the pictures that had been in the instruction sheet... pictures that had had no explanation, I guess assuming that to any person of normal sensibilities the meanings would be obvious (which is of course, a violation of one of Ruiz's agreements: Don't make assumptions). I had only glanced at them, and so why they were able to be recalled is pretty amazing, but true curiosity is a good learners aphrodisiac. As the pics played in my head, I realized something I'd noticed but missed the significance of.... before. But now it lit me up like a torch.
The gizmo wacker was hitting the nut on it's ends, NOT its sides--- like I had been doing for years! Excited, I turned the next Brazil nut on it's end, held it firmly, and brought down my hammer with skill, not force. A beautiful kerrr wackkkk sound wafted back to me, and to my eyes was revealed a perfectly opened nutshell, with a lovely unbroken nut waiting to be plucked and delivered to my mouth...!
These days, my Brazil nut batting average is much improved! Not perfect, mind you. Turns out the technique still needs to be practiced. But what a different game! And so it is also in our spiritual lives, when we become willing to UNLEARN. There are so many times that we become established in patterns that bear so much less fruit in our lives than we envisioned when we were first inspired by their call. It does not hurt, in fact it is a facet of wisdom, to be willing to re-evaluate.... not to abandon the possibility.... but to call for guidance that can show a better way.
In the case of my Brazil nut story, the memories returned because I was both committed AND thwarted. That combination is a direct message to our sub-conscious: Help Me! And of course, it did... in the only way it has to access us... from within. But it is up to us to be alert, and be willing to hear our guiding voice. In this, a meditation practice of some kind, on a daily basis, is most helpful.
Namaste,
David
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Rev. David Seacord
Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag
www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com
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