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| As a child, everything you saw and experienced came to you from across your table. When you're this young, it is someone else's responsibility to keep your table clear. If they don't, whatever is allowed to remain will begin to block your view of the world while cluttering your ability to have new experiences clearly because you need room on your table to process them. A lot of what comes across your table is neutral information, basic facts about life, which you easily absorb like a sponge so these things don't stay on your table very long because you're constantly processing this information from the vast world around you. For the most part, your table remains clear almost automatically because life is such a wonder and your mind and spirit are eager to take it all in. Every day contains new experiences and lessons. At this age, you are still very dependent on your parents or guardians so when something like hunger appears on your table it will not go away until someone feeds you. Once you've eaten, your table is once again clear. Whatever you can't do for yourself like providing food, clothing and safety for yourself will remain on your table until someone else takes care of it for you. Then the day comes when you are responsible for keeping your table clear all by yourself. Your parents, relatives, teachers, etc. will no longer be the ones doing this for you. At this point in your life, your table may not be as clear as it was when you were born. The adults in your life are not perfect and try as they did they might not have kept your table perfectly clear. You may, also, have had experiences that no one else knows about and these things will stay on your table unless you process and remove them, if you even know how. Despite that you are still fairly young when this day arrives, certain things may have been on your table for a long time, so long that you may have gotten used to looking right past them completely unaware that they don't belong there. Our minds are creatures of habit. These are blind spots and they are more common than most people realize, hence their name, but that's life. None of us are perfect and none of our tables are completely clear by the time we become adults. However, when this day arrives and for the rest of our lives, it is up to us to keep our tables as clear as possible if we want to be truly happy and see the world and other people for what and who they truly are, not to mention, ourselves. Keep your table clear. It's not always easy, but after a person does this for the first time, they experience a sense of freedom, clarity, joy and happiness that they can never imagine living without. It is never too late to clear one's table. Those who do it once want to do it everyday. With their table clear, they quickly notice when something appears on it that needs to be addressed. The clearer our table, the easier it is to realize when something is placed on it and the harder it is to overlook. If a person's table is cluttered, they may not even notice, or care, when something new lands on it. As the pile becomes bigger and bigger, it will begin to shut out the world on the other side and everyone in it. Eventually, all the person will be able to see is the mess in front of them, which is not the actual world. It is a mess of unresolved issues keeping them from experiencing life, relationships and happiness. If a person somehow realizes that this has happened, the thought of trying to clear their table, now, may seem like too daunting of a task and they may just continue to ignore it letting the pile grow more and more. If they manage to keep even just a small hole to view the rest of the world through, what they see will not be accurate. It will be distorted. Looking at the world through such a restricted view, a butterfly can look like a fire-breathing dragon. Someday, the pile may grow so big and heavy that the person's table can no longer support it and everything will come crashing down. The good news is if the person, and those close to them, are lucky enough to survivethe fall they will once again see the world and all its beauty for the first time in a very long time. The bad news is they may not survive the crash nor anyone else. This is a dangerous way to become free. However if they somehow manage to survive in the aftermath of the event, they may see enough beauty in the world once again while experiencing a new freedom from their confinement to inspire them to start cleaning up the rubble of their life. I don't recommend this approach, but if a person survives it's still worth it. Deciding to undertake the task before something this catastrophic happens prevents a lot of pain for oneself and others. The idea of the table is only a metaphor, but it is a very useful tool. The first time I chose to clear my table, after knocking it over a few times in my youth, I had to right a few wrongs, face my fears, clean up messes and even contact people who I hadn't seen in a long time. I didn't wholey understand why I was doing it, but something told me it was what I needed to do and once I did I experienced what life was supposed to feel like. It, also, freed up other abilities that I didn't even know I had. For instance, listening to something other than my hurried thoughts was an ability that I never knew I had. Once I experienced this freedom, I could never go back to the confinement of living behind a cluttered mess, again. Keeping it clear is a daily chore, but, it's the only way to live for those who have experienced this liberation or for those lucky enough to grow up in an environment where it's completely natural. Some people don't know what they're missing, but to live life to the fullest we, first, need to create space for this fullness to happen. We have to empty out the bad to make room for the good. That place is our table. There's nothing complicated or tricky about living this way. Some fancy new skill isn't required. We already have all the abilities we need inside us. We just have to start using them. All a person needs to do in order to begin is to be honest. Every child knows how to do this until this artificial world teaches them how to be dishonest, but we all still know how to as scary as it might be. We can start very simply with something that's not too big, at first. It doesn't matter what you choose to be honest about because the amazing thing about the truth is that it's interconnected. Every true statement about life is somehow connected to every other truth about life. One honest step at a time in any direction leads to more truth. Even things that are completely foreign and different from each other regardless if we as humans can't see it are connected. We don't need the whole map. All we need is a good compass. That compass is your heart. Your intuitive instincts communicate through your heart connecting you with the truth, the one thing you should never be separated from. The more honest we become the stronger our relationship with the truth becomes. This is why it doesn't matter in what direction a person takes their first step. Starting with something simple helps, but sometimes we have been carrying a heavy truth about ourselves for a long time and being honest about this one thing opens up a part of us and the world with one brave act that gives us a giant jump start in becoming a happier and healthier person. Trusting your instincts is key. It's going to take some practice so building momentum with little steps at first is a gentler way. Once you begin, your job is to catch new things that land on your table early so they don't add to the pile you're trying to reduce, but if no one has ever taught us how to do this by the time we become adults we may already think it's too late. This is not true. Unfortunately, a deeply dishonest person is petrified of the truth, but it's still never too late even for them because often removing big items will clear off large areas of one's table allowing the true light that hasn't shown on them in a very long time to help them see things differently. Sometimes, the greatest encouragement a person receives to undertake the task of clearing their table comes in the form of an unexpected life event, good or bad, which gives them a brief glimpse at how life truly is. Surprisingly, we may even learn that some of the things on our table aren't even ours. They were put there by someone else a long time ago and we've been carrying it our whole lives. The best incentive that I can offer anyone is that there is often one major item on your table that was placed there when you were very young that I guarantee once it is removed your view of the world and of yourself will be incredibly different, incredibly better. The things that land on our tables are all of life's experiences, boring and repetitive or life altering and exciting. Regardless of what type they are, if unaddressed they will affect our view of the world and the people in our lives. Keeping one's table clear is a 24hr/day job. The more you do it, the freer you feel and the better you become at recognizing when something new lands on it. It is, also, a brave undertaking because life and the world in all its glory can be overwhelming, at times. Having nothing between ourselves and this big, beautiful world can be scary, but the more we face this fear the stronger and more capable we become. If you are someone who finds life exhilarating and wants to live to your fullest potential once you have experienced life with a clear table you will never settle for living any other way, but it's crucial not to try to do this alone. Your table is a tool for life. If you're smart enough to have learned that you don't know everything and there's something greater than you operating in your life, a good way to connect and listen to it is by quieting your mind, which having a clear table allows you to do. The path that you are suppose to take or the right decision you are suppose to make is difficult to see or find if your table is cluttered. Sometimes we are like hunters and need to be very quiet and move slowly looking for subtle signs and clues to guide us. The clearer our table the better chance we have of seeing them. Instead of a table, imagine a calm lake completely flat and still. The right decision is like a bubble that stirs from somewhere deep below and rises to the surface saying "Here I am." When you see it you automatically recognize it. You can feel it in your core, but you will never notice it if the surface of your lake is always rough with waves splashing all around. Once you know the calmness and clarity of a clear table, or a calm lake, you will immediately feel when yours begins to get messy and you instinctively know when something is affecting your perspective. You will stop, search, find and address whatever it is. Life isn't always calm and quiet. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control and there is chaos all around us, but not inside us. You become the calm lake within. We do not lose the clarity we have gained from all the work we have done when life throws a million things at us. Our clarity is the stable ground we walk on. We can't control what's going on in the outside world, but we can control what's going on in our inner one. We can use our clarity to cut through all the distractions, stay the course, find the way or save the day. One of the most common and widespread blind spots for many Americans and other citizens of first world countries is separateness. Since the day many of us were born, we have been treated or told that we are separate from one another and the natural world. We are not. You are not. As previously mentioned, it is a very traumatic experience for a newborn baby to be left alone to cry itself to sleep. This is when their education in unhappiness suddenly begins. In the book, the Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff, the term "in-arms" baby is often used. This refers to the practice that most native tribes all around the world of holding a new born in the arms of its mother or other family member for the entire first year of its life. Children who are raised in this type of environment rarely cry or misbehave. Unlike many of us, their connection with their human tribe and the natural world has never been broken. They are born happy and remain this way.
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