The common theme to all of my newsletters is how paying attention to the wrong belief leads us to the wrong solution, and how being stuck is a symptom of paying attention to an inaccurate belief. As an attention coach, I find that, for most of my clients, the hardest part is not paying attention to the right things, but rather unlearning, letting go, or not paying attention to what the Ego believes it should pay attention to.
Today, I want to share a poem that I feel highlights this theme. I do have some things I’d like you to pay attention to as you read. Notice how the Ego believes (assumes) it is not the thief. Also, check your reaction at the end (the “Aha Moment”) when the incorrect belief is revealed, pointing to the real thief and the realization that the Ego had been paying attention to the wrong THIEF!
A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
With several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shops.
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,
That the man sitting beside her, as bold as can be.
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in-between,
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies and watched the clock,
As the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”
With each cookie she took, he took one too.
When only one was left, she wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh,
He took the last cookie and broke it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other.
She snatched it from him and thought…oh, brother.
This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude.
Why he didn’t even show any gratitude!
She had never known when she had been so galled
And sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,
Refusing to look back at that thieving ingrate.
She boarded the plane and sank in her seat,
Then she sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her bag, she gasped with surprise,
There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes.
If mine are here, she moaned in despair,
The others were his and he tried to share.
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.