The Joy of Intuitive Living

I recently finished reading a new book, “The Wisdom of the Hive: What Honeybees Can Teach Us about Collective Wellbeing” by Michelle Cassandra Johnson and Amy Burtaine. Within the many reflections offered in the book, one centers around the role of the honeybee.

In case you’re not familiar, honeybees tend to live their lives by doing some particular job, and they do so not for self-forwarding but for the good of the greater whole. Life is lived in community, and there’s an understanding about that. Some take care of the babies, some collect pollen, and so on.

All of that to say, I found the meditation on roles to be one of interest, and in fact, it caused me to ask questions of my own. Namely:

• What is it that we feel compelled to do?

• What is it that we feel drawn to?

Now on one hand, this is a familiar set of questions. How many books have I read that center somehow on helping the reader discover their sense of meaning and purpose or that aim at empowering the reader to do more of what embodies their sense of calling? I’ve probably engaged in scores of meditations and contemplations centered around these themes.

Add to that, there’s something familiar about the notion of “roles.” From my Christian roots, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 come to mind immediately. Are you a hand? A foot? Are you a pastor? A teacher? What are your gifts and how do you know?

But in sitting with these questions with the natural world as my mentor, it allows me to return to the question with fresh eyes, to seek out fresh inspiration. As I consider the honeybees, I’m drawn to notice that the roles they take on are instinctive, and it allows me to ask myself:

“What is instinctive in me?”

When I hear a baby crying in the line behind me at the store, intuitively, I tend to open my heart. I almost automatically will utter aloud, “Oh, what's up baby?" Without thinking or purposing myself to do so, I am drawn to want to nurture, to scoop up, to soothe. Compassion fires in my body. It’s instinctive.

And there are other things I notice about myself as well. When I want to live into an emotion, I often turn to music. When I design my workload, I often build in creative projects. I can’t help but add inspirational images and words to the landscape we live in.

If I’m on an airplane, I don’t choose to watch shows. I solve puzzles – crosswords, sudoku, trivia – I don’t care. I love solving puzzles, and this translates into my work life as well. Even as I’m a habitual paper-pile creator, I am drawn to creating organizational schemes that will make the workplace efficient and easy to use. I have no degrees in graphic design, but I’ve helped to design more than a handful of websites, combining multiples of my intuitions - beauty, language, and organization - all at once.

At times, I’m drawn to trying to compete, to rise above, to show my competence – not with everyone and not about everything. If you can run faster than me, then good for you. Consider me impressed. But to that boy in 8^th grade who was tied with me for most improved, yes, I went home and practiced on the typewriter for, like, 8 hours in order to be sure that I solidly took that award. And to anyone in my family who challenges me to a Scrabble game, know that I’m coming for you.

This little reflection on what we feel compelled to do draws me towards reverence. It causes me to hold the beauty of life in my arms like a brand-new little baby and look on in wonder. Wow. What is this unexplainable design living within each and every one of us?

I don’t really know why I can’t help but doodle my reflections and meditations, but I know that I want to and that my journals are full of drawings and haikus.

Now all of this said, I’ll be honest. I don’t always love everything about my role in this life. For all that it is, l’ve often struggled to define what I do with my days. I do have job titles, but unlike the honeybee, I tend to embody many titles a day, flowing from one to the next, and sometimes attempting multiple roles at once. This goes against the practice of “just this,” which very much precipitates my need for a meditation that allows me to return to doing nothing but breathing.  

But that being said, I have also lived my life by asking:

How can I do more of what…

…lights me up.

…I feel drawn to.

…engages my sense of meaning and purpose.

Use whatever phrase you wish. The point is, while I don’t always love all the individual moments of life, I very much love my life, and that has a lot to do with asking this question and then living deeply into the answer.

Something in me really resonates with this idea that we are born with certain abilities and desires, that we’re here for a purpose. We can try to run from it, but it will most certainly be there calling to us.

I bow deeply to this unexplainable and great mystery that is the design of each and every one of us.

And I turn the question over to you:

• What is instinctive in you?

• Can you name it with joy?

• Do you notice resistance when you say it out loud?

• Does it fuel your days?

• Do you need more of it in your life?

May each of us continue to uncover the great mystery of who we are in increasing measure. And may it lead us to that inner wellspring of Abundant Joy within.