Getting Warmer!

Remember that party game we used to play called ‘Hunt the Thimble’. Someone would leave the room and then we’d hide something and then call them back in. Their task was to find ‘the thimble’, or whatever we’d hidden, and we would give them clues if they were getting close or not by saying “getting warm” or “warmer” or “colder”.

Considering Life, and the way we are doing things we are doing, the learning and understandings that we have, the metamorphoses and transformations that we undergo – there are times when we get insights or ‘A-Ha’ moments. And it is these that seem, for me at least, to be rather like a resounding chorus of “getting very warm”.

The other thing to remember in Life is that once the ‘thimbles’ are found, we tend to usually tag them in such a way as to recognise them, so that when we next search we are able to find them straight away or certainly much quicker!

Now this brings me to the next stage of the game – the ways in which we hunt.

The Ways We Hunt

When we come back into the room there are many ways we can set about hunting the 'thimble'. If we just start randomly looking around in one area – on top of things, behind things, under things, inside things – WITHOUT listening to what the other players in the room are saying in terms of warmer or colder, then, unless we are very lucky, we might be looking for a very long time! So there are methods we can adopt to help the hunt, and attentions we can pay to the messages we are getting.

This is all very much conscious hunting. What if we were to alter and enhance our perspective by applying some unconscious hunting? To explain this I’m going to use the metaphor of being on horseback.

Horse Whispers and hoarse whispers

Once mounted on this metaphorical horse, I can take on a new perspective. The perspective that the way I hunted for 'thimbles' when on the ground is quite different on horseback. Up here I can see more and with greater clarity, I have more of an overview that my previous perspective would never allow.

The other thing about the metaphorical horse is this – Once you accept the notion that the previous way I was hunting was purely a conscious search, and that the horse is an unconscious engagement, NOW my way of hunting has become enhanced with another set of eyes, an additional degree of perceptive awareness, an extra level of hunting energy, to supercharge my 'thimble' search.

NOW it is not just conscious me, it is me and my unconscious horse! And when I am in harmony with my horse, we have a unified level of awareness that makes finding the ‘thimbles’ much, much, easier.

Of course I’m not always in harmony with my horse – my communication, shall we say, is not a Whisper! Sometimes I dismount and convince myself that today’s ‘Hunt’ is better conducted on foot. Needless to say, when the world keeps saying to me “getting colder”, because the way I’m hunting today is not hunting at my best, then I get irate, angry and frustrated with the world – and I blame the world, and everything and everyone in it, for the fact that I can’t find today’s particular ‘thimble’.

However, once I return to trusting my horse and all that it brings for me, then I can mount up again and get back to finding the 'thimbles' with ease. The overriding notion is that trusting the horse becomes something essential to the game, when we realise that it’s capabilities as a hunter are vastly superior to just our own.

The 'Thimbles' of Life

The ‘thimbles’ of life, even down to that real BIG ‘thimble’ – the meaning of Life – are all mysteries there for us to solve, to discover where the 'thimbles' are. And isn’t that part of our engagement with ‘the game of Life’?

Of course, like all games, our level of engagement determines the amount of pleasure we get out of it. In a way that’s the one of the points about Life - the more the engagement, the more the pleasure. The thing is, when we are totally in the zone of playing, there is never any assessment of fun or enjoyment – we are just doing. All the assessment comes after the doing, during periods of reflection.

But, you may say, there are many other points to Life that no one could ever construe as being akin to games or fun. Or is that part of the illusion that we have accepted through our years of ‘growing up’? It must have come from somewhere, because we certainly aren’t born with it! The illusion that Life is a struggle, a trial, a bitter-sweet experience, something we have to take medication for, right down to something we aren’t allowed to have?

It’s just a thought!

Conclusion

So as you undertake another day of games of hunting 'thimbles', consider some of the ways you can change your methods of hunting. Consider also some of the ways you can tag the 'thimbles' so that next time you can recognise them more easily. Remind yourself that part of ‘good hunting’ is listening to the clues from the chorus as to whether you are ‘getting warmer’ or staying out in the cold.

Above all, remember that it is a game which you can make as serious or as light hearted as you wish, and that within all of this there is a degree of pleasure which is determined by your level of engagement with the game.

Getting warmer yet?