“Your desire is proportionate with your awareness of what you don’t want. It always is so.”

–Abraham-Hicks

I really like this quote… clarifies much.

I think most people tend to avoid the “contrast” in life. In other words, we believe that if somehow we experience something uncool that we’ve done something “wrong.”

But contrast is not be avoided. It’s an essential ingredient in the stew of life. We will never stop experiencing it as long as we exist on this plane. Why? Because all of our desire is born from our experiences of contrast.

A quick example:

A couple weeks ago I got an e-mail from someone wanting an in-person Wavemaker session with me. The client wanted me to meet her where she was staying.  I usually do not travel for this type of work (I prefer people to come to me), but because I would be driving back from another engagement that I believed was relatively close to where she was, I agreed. While I was breaking many of my own rules, my mind rationalized my decision — after all, I could accommodate this person, I thought I would be doing her a good service, and I’d be making a few bucks as well. 

However, the greater truth was that I never had a good feeling about this whole deal. In fact, as I was shaving the morning of the appointment, I recall looking in the mirror thinking, “Why am I bothering to shave today? This meeting is not going to happen anyway…”

So I had all sorts of inklings. And certainly, I created the experience that followed.

Google Maps told me it would take 2 hours to arrive at our meeting place and so I left 2 hours +15 minutes before our appointment time. Immediately I got caught in traffic for 30 minutes (“traffic” is non-existent where I live, so it’s just not in my consciousness to plan for). Then I noticed my route was literally the scenic one — full of lovely waterfalls and covered bridges, but the speed limit never topped 45 MPH.

The die was cast and I was going to be late. I do not own a cell phone (my bad, but I’m not a big fan), so I was unable to call the person to inform her. With bladder bursting, I ran to our meeting place a full 30 minutes late after 2.5 stressful hours on the road in bad weather.

I found the client and apologized. This person never rose from her seat and just looked at me blankly, like who was I, and why was I bothering her? I quickly got the vibe that there was no salvaging this operation (and besides, I really had to pee). So I shook her hand, apologized again for my tardiness, and took my leave.

On my ride home, I couldn’t help but think of the time, energy, and a few bucks I’d wasted by entering into this agreement. But very quickly I realized that this experience showed me WHAT I DID NOT WANT.

And rather than dwell in this negative space, my job was to now identify what my true DESIRE is…

For the record, it goes something like this:

I only work with people who are thrilled to work with me. I always trust my gut when deciding to work with someone. I always get paid up front. I do not travel for work unless it feels good to do so. I only work with people who recognize me and appreciate what I have to offer.

Going back to the essence of the Abraham quote, this experience was not a mistake. It was a necessary occurrence to give me the clarity of my deeper desires. This is always the case.

It’s up to us to recognize this, to not get caught in the vortex of negativity, and step into the process of conscious creation.