As I continue to read Michael J Roads' small book titled Talking with Nature, I continue to be impressed with the wisdom he shares about accepting our own experience, about believing that we know what we know. This seems such an obvious thought when I first consider it. Yet it seems our inability to believe our own experience is what causes us to doubt our actions and insights.Self-doubt is the most toxic response we can have to situations that involve our interactions with the unseen intelligence of nature. The moment we say to ourselves, "Did I really receive that phrase, in answer to this difficult question I am pondering, from the rock I am holding...or did I just make up those words that popped into my head as I picked up the stone?" As soon as I wonder this, I limit my access to the universal consciousness that composes all matter. I diminish nature's vast knowing to the size of my human knowledge.
I decided to draw a Journey Oracle card and ask, "How do I release self-doubt?"
I drew #4--the card of the South--which for me represents the close up view of nature: trusting the information of small details like a mouse or squirrel does.The image immediately resonated with the choice I am posing about accepting our direct experience. When I focus on self-doubt it is like seeing the small black insect-like form on the left reaching out with its long legs or antennae, and therefore missing the small crimson-hearted seed growing from the red-violet curve in the center. Only I can choose where to put my gaze. The question on the card seems to underline this choice of perception. "Am I the one willing to undo it?" means to me I am the only one with the will to undo my self doubt--by accepting and believing my direct experience.
