What Holds You Back? Is That True???

As most of you know, we recently rescued a greyhound who we renamed Izzo , after the MSU basketball coach, Tom Izzo (yes, I know he is holding a football!).  For three weeks, we tried to be patient waiting for the new fence to go in. We took a lot of walks every day but could tell this dog really wanted his freedom to run somewhere, anywhere.  On Tuesday, the fence was complete.  I took Izzo out into the backyard with me and he just meandered around checking out places to sniff where the bunnies had been sitting earlier that morning. He paused to look through the fence but I am not sure he actually saw it.  I finally distracted him by throwing him a ball and when he went to pounce on it, that is when he realized for the first time he was free!  He ran and ran and ran! He ran circles around the yard, behind the trampoline, up over one set of steps to the deck and flew off the other.  He was so happy!  But he hadn't known he was free to do whatever he wanted until I told him.  An imaginary leash bound him until a bouncing racquetball distraction set him free.

In the same way Rosa Luxemburg wrote, "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains", one could also say those who do not move do not notice the chains are gone.

Consider some of the things you would like to do but, for some reason or another, feel you cannot. What are those reasons? Do they really exist?  Are they invisible ties someone else put there that really do not exist? For example, if someone told you that you could not be a doctor because you are not smart enough, they created this imaginary chain labeled stupid that holds you back if you believe it.  Question the chains and the labels. Believe in yourself.  Try whatever it is you felt you could not do to see if, in the moving forward, you actually find you are free to follow that path. Like Izzo with his imaginary leash.

When we realize anything and everything is possible, we begin to open up to the Universe to let it know that as well and the manifestation of our desires begins to emerge before us.

I was outside yesterday in the back yard with Izzo. I was weeding; he was not!  He was running along the side fence with two of the neighbor's dogs.  I could tell he really wanted the fence to be gone so he could run and play with them.  Luckily for Izzo, one of the dogs is an escape artist... a very quiet one! It wasn't until I stood and turned that I realized the other dog was in my yard and the two were wrestling and playing! I swear Izzo's desire for a playmate manifested because he wanted it bad enough.  The dogs never barked out their plans. There must have been a very silent digging and sliding under the fence and then a very quiet greeting and play because I didn't have any idea what was going on behind me!

Even the actual barrier of the fence became imaginary as the dogs figured out a different way through  their obstacle to get what they wanted.  What is your obstacle? How can you move around it (or underneath it, as the case may be!)?

There are endless quotes about how we, ourselves, have helped put up our walls. We have handcuffed our own wrists.  We have double knotted the ties that no one else can see.

"The biggest obstacles in our lives are the Barriers our mind creates..." unknown

Lastly, I do not usually quote politicians but this one seemed non-political and appropriate:

"There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect." Ronald Reagan

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