I was trying to do something that I was told was simple.
You just download it, and voila….after a short configuration, you’ve got a great forum for your peeps.
I should have been more alert when I read “short configuration”.
But I’m pretty good at figuring out tech stuff. I rather enjoy it. I’ve built my whole entire website (with some VERY important help a couple of times, mind you) by myself.
I don’t know how to write code and I’m not going to learn. But I do like DIY.
Do It Yourself.
I didn’t want to hire some stranger (again) and not know what they did or how to repeat it or how to upgrade or make edits or add content myself.
What I was trying to do was supposed to be easy.
Create a private forum (finally, it’s about time) for my Year of Inquiry members. So they can post worksheets, comment, ask questions, share insights.
About 16 hours later (seriously, all morning Saturday starting around 5:30 am, Sunday early hours ticking by also, yesterday around 4 hours more).
Reading, watching youtube videos, learning.
OK, I got it.
This is gonna be great!
I installed several plug-ins and bam.
My screen went white.
Someone who I was asking a few questions on facebook said “Um, I don’t see your website anywhere. Did it disappear?”
ARRRRGGGGG!!!!
Call the website hosting company, hang out on hold, they disable all the plug-ins (its OK if you have no idea what I’m talking about) and then my site comes back on line.
Which is good, I guess.
But my thoughts weren’t that fun….
- this is ridiculous!
- can’t someone figure this out for me–I will pay!
- I hate this stuff!
- I want to be writing, working on a podcast, creating a webinar, answering my emails, updating OTHER things on my website
- this is taking too long!
You might think this about a project you’re doing, but you also might think this about someone else’s project, or how fast they’re walking, or how fast they’re cleaning up, or why the line you’re waiting in isn’t getting shorter.
What is going on with this queue (if you’re in England)?
Jeezus!
Let’s inquire!
Is it true that the thing you have thought to be taking too long….
….IS taking too long?
Too long for what? For who?
Too long for ME!
It’s true!
This is torture!
Can you absolutely know this is true?
No.
Who would you be without this belief?
Without the belief it’s taking too long, or too short for that matter?
Who would you be without the thought that there’s a length of time something should take, and it’s not going that way (in your opinion)?
As Byron Katie might joke….”Who needs God when we have you?”
Without the belief, I’d stop thinking about all the alternate things I could have, would have or should have been doing for the past three days.
I’d relax.
I’d keep asking, then letting go, then asking, then letting go….and moving on to fun, interesting, other things.
Like writing this Grace Note. And working with clients.
Turning the thought around:
It’s taking just the right amount of time.
How could this be just as true, or truer?
Nothing terrible happened. No one died.
I learned a bunch of things.
I had a nice chat with a support person, and a facebook chat with a lovely woman web developer in New Mexico.
I finally dropped all effort and went out on my bicycle and felt wind in my hair, and my breath pumping in and out, and saw the tall trees with leaves fluttering madly.
I laughed with my daughter when she came in from school, telling her I’ve been sitting in this room all day trying to figure out one thing, to no avail.
I got to stop and work with a client at 9 am and again at 11:30 am even though Mondays I try not to fill with clients. I wasn’t even thinking about wordpress forum plug-ins when facilitating The Work.
Without the thought that anything, ever, has taken too long?
Wow.
I’m aware of advantages for things that take awhile, advantages for things that take a short amount of time, advantages for not getting involved.
If it was shorter, it would be too soon.
If it was longer, it would be too long.
But it isn’t.
It is just the right amount of time.
Even this life that I’m living. It is not over yet. I have lived just the right amount of 54 years so far, and will live just the right amount longer, for a brilliant, perfect, sweet life full of learning, growing, imagining, waiting, awakening, being.
It does take a load off, don’t you think?
What advantages can you find for things taking the time they take?
Even your five year old getting dressed, or your grandma walking down the store aisle, or your teenager taking a shower, or your partner finding a job, or the contractor putting in the new kitchen floor.
“All things–all beings and all activities, no matter how ordinary–are equal expressions of the Infinite. There is no more or less Infinite, no higher or lower Infinite….If you could all at once stop believing your dreaming mind and be completely still right in the midst of your present state, the Infinite would effortlessly present itself.” ~ Adyashanti
Ah.
This quote by Adya just appeared, without much effort or looking.
All in an ordinary act of stopping, doing The Work, writing, thinking, stopping.
What advantages can you find of things taking as long as they take?
Much Love, Grace