Win Harper | Life and Leadership Coach

This weekend Elizabeth and I were at The Lodge at Woodloch in Hawley, Pennsylvania.  We taught classes and had one-on-one private sessions.  Saturday night we facilitated a one hour workshop together on symbolism, and signs. 

In “The Alchemist” Paulo Coelho talks about symbolism and signs.  He says, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” While there is a negative connotation with the word conspires, it does denote working together.  And working together with the universe means deciding what you want, taking action and then looking for signs.  Signs are the feedback that you use to adjust your course of action.  A sailboat is a perfect example.  The Captain decides where he wants to go, and sets his course in that direction.  Once he sets sail, however, the winds and the seas will influence the direction of the boat. The Captain working together with these elements, the signs - his feedback, will adjust his sails and rudder in order to reach his destiny. 

There is a scene in “The Man with Two Brains” with Steve Martin that explains some people’s reactions to signs.  Before his wife died Steve Martin’s character told her that he would never date again.  After she passed away, however, he met a woman and wanted his dead wife’s permission to date her.  Standing in front of an oil painting of his wife he implored her to give him a sign if she did not approve of the woman he planned to date.  There was thunder, the wall split, and the painting twirled around.  Steve stood there and calmly asked again that if there is anything wrong with him dating please give a sign.  We sometimes don’t read the signs, especially ones that don’t support what we want to do. 

Elizabeth and I have three sets of cards we used in the class.  The first one I drew from the Devil Cards, was Death.  Then I drew an Angel Card and got Gratitude.  Finally, I drew one of my Inquiry Cards and received – What is it to live life fully? 
Here is how I interpreted these three cards:

A lot of us say we are at our best when we have deadlines.  Most of us got through school by writing reports or studying for exams the night before because we felt we could focus better then and be at our best.  We were stimulated by the deadline, and normally grateful for the grade we received.  Death is the ultimate deadline, and we don’t know when it will be.  To me the Gratitude Card was recognition of the value of “living life fully”, every day, as if it was our last one.  I needed the reminder.

What is it to live life fully?  What is the Universe telling you?  Are there signs you are not seeing?

Here is a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver:

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measles-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.