A guest post by Sally G.
This post has a theme song. 
People Are Strange by Echo and the Bunnymen: http://tinysong.com/sECk
I gave myself a new title yesterday – Spirit Sleuth. From this point onward, I will observe everything around me as a Detective who is trying to solve a case. Everything that happens will hold within it a clue. Everyone who crosses my path will have something to do with the truth that I search. Nice to know that my English Major background will finally be put to good use!
When I brought in the mail, I was excited to see my woman’s magazine had been delivered. I always look forward to reading through it at night with a hot cup of tea – my reward for a day that I’ve at last put behind me. I then decided to see it as a Spirit Sleuth would see it ~ what message for me lay somewhere on its cover?
Strong, Sexy, Stylish leaped off the page. It was in reference to the actress featured inside the issue – but it got me to thinking: if someone were to run a feature story about me, what three adjectives would they deem appropriate to scream from the page? And more importantly, what three adjectives would I desire to sum me up succinctly in a nano-second?
Dull, Forgettable, Strange. Hmmmm, not very flattering – and it would be the last time anyone ever featured me in their magazine, that’s for sure.
Who spends money to read about Dull, Forgettable and Strange?
I’m going to make an executive decision here and forget about how others might define me. After all, that’s been my ‘problem’ all along, hasn’t it? Letting others define me and then living up to those expectations regardless of how well the adjectives fit?
I’m going to create myself as I’d like to be seen.
Spiritualists do that – they create themselves in the grandest version of the greatest vision that they can imagine. And I’ve decided that I am a Spiritualist – at least, I’m practicing to be one because I do believe it to be the most effective way to eventually replace my false Self with my authentic Self.
The vision I’ve been holding of me walking up to a closed door, opening it, throwing my arms around the Authentic Me that’s waiting there and crying, “Oh thank heavens I’ve finally found you – we can be one at last and the role playing will end forever!” isn’t really working for me. And I’m quite enjoying this idea of myself as a Spirit Sleuth – so, yes – I’m going to create three adjectives to describe me the way I would like to be seen, which is probably how I actually am, I just haven’t fully found the confidence to act on that yet.
Fascinating, Funny, Fluid
I probably didn’t have to use alliteration just because the magazine did – but I actually like this. If people knew what went on in this head of mine in the time it takes to blink, they might actually deem me fascinating. And I do have a different way of looking at the world – and I may also be the only person on the planet who has a fear of closed doors, so – Fascinating stays.
I also consider myself to be quite hilarious – I truly do crack myself up on quite a regular basis. Yes, not everyone seems to be on my wavelength and I do have a wit that requires you to pay attention to everything said up to my hilarious outburst because I do tend to play off what is being discussed and spin it into the humorous. But people who are capable of doing all that do tend to laugh too. And more than once people have looked at me differently and said, “Wow, you’re funny.” – like THAT was beyond imagining until just moments before. So, Funny stays too.
Besides, this ability I have to see a different spin on something being discussed really helps me with my present missive as a Spirit Sleuth – from what I can gather so far, you really have to look for what’s not there and in the looking for what’s not there, it suddenly becomes visible to the point that the entire event or exchange is completely about what was not even noticeable at first, leaving you to wonder how you ever missed it in the first place.
Which leads me to my final adjective: Fluid
If I do anything well, it’s going with the flow. I mean, I’m learning to do that well now – I wasn’t always fluid, I was more on the other end of the spectrum – very rigid. However, if you’re going to dedicate your days to looking for things that aren’t there and then affixing meaning to those things that only you see, and only you see them because only you are looking for them – then being rigid is only going to hold you back.
Fluidity, however, allows me to be involved in an interaction, oblivious to the clue it holds until I suddenly remember that I’m a Spirit Sleuth – and I then continue on as though I am still oblivious (because not to do so would probably completely freak out the other person or people in the exchange) but the whole time I’m really looking for the underlying meaning that could really change everything if I can find it, interpret it and then act upon it in kind.
It is not lost on me that this blog post could be entered as evidence in a future law suit launched to challenge my sanity.
Not that anyone would have any reason to do that – but if they did, I could see this working against me. Unless the lawyer was a Spirit Sleuth too. What are the odds of that though –- I’ve heard they don’t even have souls.
Spirit Sleuthing is definitely no place for the Mediocre. And it can be lonely at times. What do you say – will you join me in my work?
Sally G. is a self-professed work-in-progress who has chosen to keep the aspects of herself that work ~ releasing old habits, labels and tendencies that do not. Chanting the mantra “Self-Actualization ain’t no place for sissies” ~ she fully supports, encourages and inspires all the courageous travellers she meets along the way. Sally’s reflections, humour and insight are on full display on her blog site and on Twitter
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