The Vacuum in the Fish Tank

At any given moment one doesn’t know if something will happen – often a seemingly meaningless event – that will spark thoughts worth pondering over. One of those moments for me was two nights ago, when I cleaned out my fish tank.
I pumped out half of the water and used a vacuum to suck up debris from the bottom of the tank, while the tiny goldfish continued to swim in the little water that was left in there.

Right then, a thought crossed my mind – what could the fish be thinking in that moment? Certainly he had no idea of what I was doing, and all it was aware of was the tube moving around the tank and sucking up gravel. Every time it moved the fish swam away quickly, as if the tube was an underwater monster ready to swallow it in one bite.

All along the fish was never in danger. In fact, what was happening was for its greater good. Yet it was scared, and had no idea of its best interest being met.

In the greater scheme of things, we humans behave similarly when faced with situations we don’t comprehend the hidden value of. We run around in circles, scared and confused, afraid for our well-being and survival, without pausing a moment to see the greater picture. Some events are the catalyst for increased awareness and needed change, yet, it is hard for us to see or accept that.

With the recent fall of our economy, many are fearful for their present and future, and feel as if they are standing at the edge of a precipice, stable enough to survive in the moment but at the mercy of unknown events that might cause them to lose their balance and fall.

Yet, through some of this hardship, families and communities are coming together, and individuals are once again discovering the hidden treasures of family unity and human compassion. The hidden gains could also be of different quality altogether – maybe someone needs to learn humility, human compassion; needs to know he or she is able to take charge of life and be creative in regard to survival, or simply needs to recharge a weakened faith in a higher power.

Regardless of the fact that we may or may not understand the reasons behind some of the events unfolding in our lives, those reasons exist nonetheless, and those experiences are not placed in our lives by chance. Most important is to realize that we will not be harmed, but will instead draw benefits from them in the long run. One lady I know was laid off, and has decided to go back to school. Although right now she is going through hard times because of her unemployment, a few years down the road she will be happy of the decision she made. Had she not been laid off, she might have never taken the chance to leave a good job to pursue more education, and consequently would have given up the opportunity of having a better job for the future.

Ultimately, we are no different than the tiny goldfish – we fear and struggle, and are only able to see what’s happening beside the vacuum, when if we could instead see the full picture we would know that the tank is just being cleaned out.

Filling Up the Tank

“Emotions are the fuel to really move you along - that's the only way you can create music. If you don't feel any emotions, it's not going to happen.” ~ Jan Hammer


In one of her comments to one of my posts, friend and fellow writer Alice Grist described how hearing of the success a childhood friend experienced in her career, motivated her to stir her own creative juices and start writing professionally.

Although their friendship had ended many years before while still children, their mothers were still occasionally in contact and shared information about their respective daughters; when Alice heard that her friend had become a writer and journalist -- something she had always wanted as well and never pursued -- she was overcome by jealousy.

Jealousy, envy, anger and all other emotions customarily considered negative ones are usually seen as a deterrent to success and personal growth, but in Alice’s case, jealousy and a sense of competition were the main ingredients of a fuel that propelled her toward tapping into her hidden talent and developing a career in writing.

Born from the ego, emotions are often confused with feelings from the heart. It is very common to hear people talking about amorous jealousy being connected to true love, while in reality the two are as different from one another as day and night – the feeling of love knows no jealousy because love is all-encompassing and well-wishing; we love our children and wish them to be happy with the right person; by no mean we would want our love for them to become a prison, because true love doesn’t need to own anything or anyone. Jealousy is instead connected to fear, the opposite of love.

Generally speaking, emotions are a cursed lot we don’t need to call upon, unless, of course, we can channel their fire in a creative way.

When one of my friends found out her husband was determined to dissolve their marriage, she was crushed. When he left, she became angry. At the time, her anger served a purpose, and it allowed her to pump steel into her spine while she tried to pick up the pieces of her life. Anger held her up from the impulse of drowning into self-pity, and gave her strength in the early days of the separation.

In Alice’s situation, the feeling of dissatisfaction with the self which resulted from comparing her stalling writing success to her friend’s prolific venture, led her to shake off the invisible chains that held her back from reaching her own true potential. Today, Alice Grist is a highly-respected author and a very creative businesswoman.

My mother always explained it best – no matter what it flows through, or what it feeds, electricity is still electricity. The energy invested in the charge connected to specific emotions is still energy; channeled through our intent but neutral in nature. So, if energy can begin in a neutral state and be transformed into a negative or positive charge through our choice of thoughts, certainly the reverse process can happen as well, and we can use the directing power of our thoughts to channel a negative charge and transform it into a positive one.

If we can concentrate on shifting our focus whenever we feel a negative charge rise up in response to something unpleasant, and direct the fire of our emotions toward positive mental images, we can now pour fuel into a plane which will take us where we desire to be.

We can’t always choose what happens around us, but we have the power to choose what we will do with it. If someone offered you free gasoline for your car, you would never dream of turning down the offer; wasting the opportunity to employ free, good mental fuel is not too smart either.

A Season for Everything

“Some closing of the gates is inevitable after thirty, if the mind is to become a creative power.”~ E.M. Forster

This past weekend, one of my close friends went on a spiritual retreat she attends several times a year, and decided to share the trip with another friend who occasionally travels with her. During this particular trip, she had a surprise –another friend she had not seen in years decided to ride along.

Once she got past the initial shock, she was happy this opportunity had opened for her to find resolution to a personal conflict. Four years ago, she and this friend had come to a halt in their relationship for no apparent reason, and she never could figure out exactly what happened that drove her friend away.

The drive was for the most part uneventful, the soft rhythmic rumble of the engine interrupted only by the voices of the other two women excitedly chatting away and catching up. Focused on driving, and not much interested in the daily dramas being discussed, my friend avoided large part of the conversation and listened instead.

From the time their ways parted, their lives had evolved in such different directions that it was almost impossible to find anything left in common. During the trip, finally, my friend found the resolution she had waited several years for – nothing drastic had occurred when their friendship ended, no one had argued over anything, and no harsh words had come in between them; their friendship had simply run its course, and had come to an end.

It happens, sometimes, that relationships fall apart without an apparent reason, leaving one or more of the people involved fishing for answers, or wondering if they are at fault in the dissolution.

Some people are in our lives to stay, and their role is often one of mutual support, while some others only briefly cross paths with us to facilitate the learning of a specific lesson. When the lesson is assimilated – whether that milestone is integrated into our conscious perception or not – the person walks away and our paths diverge once again; they were never meant to run together, but only to merge for a short while.

Some of the ‘temporary people’ in our lives can enter the stage at the most unexpected moments, and their arrival and brief stay – as well as their often dramatic exit - have the power to upset the natural order of things, or to trigger a change by initially turning our lives upside down.

In my friend’s case, when the former friend walked out, curiosity surrounding the fallout was the main reason for her leaving the door ajar all this time. When she met the other woman again, she realized she had no hard feelings for her at all; in fact, she wished her well on her way. Nothing was ever really wrong; they were only two very different people whose lives briefly connected for reasons to them unknown. Their time together was over many years before, and finally my friend was able to lay the matter to rest. With that door finally closing she allowed herself to free up her perception while waiting for new things to take the place of something that no longer served her in the present.