THE ART OF LISTENING.

A story.

I have always been a lover of Art and creating anything artistic.

After leaving school I went on to study ‘A Level’ Art at college.

On the first day of class, I walked into a room full of strangers, blended myself in and found a place to sit behind an easel.

The tutor introduced herself, then went on to show us our very first task.

She took a large sheet of paper and started to draw in pencil. While doing this she described how to create a ‘continuous line contour drawing’. (aptly named ‘Infinity’ line drawing).

We were asked to draw a fellow student and to fill the whole of the paper without removing our pencil from the paper.

I knew what I was good at and what I liked. I’d never drawn in this way before and my instinct was to dismiss what she was saying (to a certain degree) because I knew better. I thought I knew what would look better.

My mind wanted to get in the way and to zone out and just get on with it.

However, I knew that this tutor was well admired and her own work spoke for itself.

Why would I take the time to come to this course and then just do what I thought was best and dismiss the guidance?… It didn’t make sense.

So! I decided to trust in what she was saying. I trusted myself to listen intently. To let go of what I ‘thought’ I knew and to be guided.

I set to work remembering exactly what she had said and I let go of any expectations. To simply trust. If it didn’t go so well then so be it.

As I worked, I glanced for brief moments around the room. Noticing 1 student who was doing intense and careful shading and another who was drawing a small neat figure in the centre of the paper. Others taking pencils off the page.

I recognised that they’d had similar thoughts to what I had had about knowing what would work and look better.

After we had finished, the tutor walked around the room admiring everyone’s work. I could clearly see that most had not listened to the guidance.

There were some lovely drawings and no one had done anything wrong as such.

The tutor did another lap of the room and returned to where I was sitting. She unclipped my picture and took it to the front of the room.

As she pinned it to the classroom board and smoothed it down there was a gasp around the room…

…And the tutor simply said “THIS is how it’s done”.

From that moment I became a mini class celebrity HAHA!… The students were saying it was incredible and asking ~ “how did you do that”!

Yet I hadn’t ‘done’ anything special. I had simply let go of what I ‘thought’ I knew. I had listened and trusted the guidance. And it had paid off.

And I knew that if everyone in the room was to do that one simple thing. There would’ve been different results everywhere.

I see this often in my own guidance.

There is often so much questioning. Which is absolutely fine. Questions are highly welcomed and beneficial.

However, there is often a swift and vast seeing in SO many.

Lightbulbs going off everywhere!.. Ping. Ping. Ping.

This is because there is a natural restriction on allowing the mind to get involved into the questioning of how to find this true Peace within.

I am often asked…

How did you get there?

How did you discover this.

What did you do?

As if there is some special hidden secret!

And it isn’t actually a secret at all!

It is a letting go of what we ‘think’ we know.

It is a trusting of the guidance.

Of what IS already known within.

It is in the art of listening.

Of letting go.

Of being led.

Of trusting.

And then it’s simply a SEEing it for ourselves.

And you don’t have to believe a word I say.

SEE for YourSelf.

✏️

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