Native American’s call it a Vision Quest; poets refer to it as a journey toward the soul while books of motivation lean hard on describing the act of letting go of current circumstances to study the winds of peace nothing more then discovery.
Often associated with the middle aged, dirt poor or someone struck with sickness, the need to extend has the ability to break free at any time and usually when you least expect it. Like the common cold there are tiny signals and signs, then one morning you wake up and without a doubt and no way out you’ve chased a quick witted rabbit down a giant hole and everything around you no longer seems real.
Depending on who you’ve chosen to be closest to, this raw unexplained feeling determines the outcome of what you’ll bring back to share and or keep for one’s self to serve as a healing tool through future challenges.
One of my favorite authors is Jamie Samms whose animal stories take mystery, loss of confidence and assumed failure and opens the window, door and hood of the car that brought you here and gives you something new to compare things to. Why is there always a bright red cardinal in the tree next to the mailbox each morning before you leave for a job that tends to cut into your dreams more than it delivers? On the way to the grocery store yesterday three deer walked near the road, while two leaped toward the horizon faster then time pushes humans through history, one elected to stand there staring into the eyes you call your own. What did she say?
Self discovery is a powerful way of life.
I’ve always been jealous of runners because no matter how far those legs carry them their spiritual journey during the jog was one hundred times further.
According to the book Power’s Within, a person that chooses to discover has a clear perception of the part of the being that’s chosen to visit.
Instantly one might think ghosts, spirits or fallen loved one’s that never want to shake free from teaching you how to lead a better life. Ok…call it what you want; Native American’s see them as Spirit Guides and Keepers. My wife believes the dogs we’ve rescued are with us no matter how thick the storm. When something turns up missing we shout, “Harold or Larry!” MJ the Maltese adult puppy will look at me with an expression that's completely identical to Woji or Nicki and without a doubt I’ll be drawn to their energy.
Dr. Ronald Mack from Wake Forest University was the first to introduce me to studying the path of Runes. Depending on where you purchase them from, Runes are plastic, can be rocks, blocks of wood or made of shells; no matter the make, if studied; questions aren’t answered but paths become clearer.
The book Powers Within continues: Some people are intellectuals; for them everything is expressed by ideas and images but if they go into a more material domain where they risk no touching things in their concrete reality one is gifted with progress by means of discovery.
In Tae Kwon Do we are expected to put our hands, feet and head through bricks. For this to unfold the student must learn to see them self move through the wall. Meditation opened the door. But to do it requires a better understanding of what you’re doing and why but more importantly to whom it’s going to affect.
In 2008 during my second degree black belt test it became my Vision Quest to become a leader in the art of teaching how to protect your self when forced to the floor. Taking my Jujitsu studies and combining it with Native America sacred circle meditations; the layout and or plan was to mimic what an alligator does while being attacked under water. It involved four bricks and each had to be shattered within fifteen seconds from a push up position, immediately to the back, side and forward using only the head as my protector.
I practiced, practiced and practiced day in and day out deeply injuring the palms of my hands, back fist and forehead. I could never make it through the bricks. Test day was less than a week away. Turning to Master Harris he calmly instructed, “Have you asked the bricks for permission to make them two?”
You can see the brick break on www.arroe.net
Journey, Vision Quest, Self Discovery…the greatest things come from the moments when you begin to listen.
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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