What you see is what you get!
One of the excursions planned for the participants of our group during the Italian Retreat was a visit to the observatory that is part of the University of Bologna. The observatory is located in the mountains in the small town of Loiano. Our visit was arranged for 9:00 in the evening, after another wonderful Italian dining event. During our dinner I noticed a man who had what felt like the energy and presence of the owner of the hotel. He was often passing the room in which we were dining and seemed to be spending a fair amount of time looking in at this wonderful group of women.
Later as we waited in the lobby for transportation to the observatory he was introduced as our driver. We boarded the bus and traveled the short distance to the observatory where we were met by 2 of the astronomers. After an educational experience of the telescope and it’s capacities with a few questions to determine our understandings we were offered an opportunity to look at the star known as Vega which was incredibly brilliant and sparkling. We then focused on a star pair of different colors caused by differing temperatures and a star cluster. The experience for each of us was a reaffirmation and a deepening sense of being one with all that is.
During the presentation at the observatory and later, as well, I became aware of the different experiences each of us was having with our driver. While I experienced an older man taking very good care of the women he was driving, others had different experiences. The range of experiences was an incredible example of the capacity of each of us to choose the track we decide to run on and the effects of conditioning and beliefs in that decision. Some experienced an older man with a sexual agenda, others experienced a bus driver with no agenda except driving the bus. I retained a sense of ownership and caretaking from this man. Upon our return to the villa, one of the members of the group tipped the driver 10 Euro.
We then returned to the dining room for desert. Soon our waiter came to our table with a bottle of wine from our "driver." Turns out he was the owner and the villa had been very busy that evening so he had decided to drive us to the observatory. We all laughed at the humor of tipping the driver who was the owner. Later we learned he had instructed the villa manager to never again put him in a situation where he would not be understood. (He did not speak English and we did not speak much Italian.)
As we gathered the next morning to continue our retreat work we talked about the experience we had all had and the differences in our perceptions. For each of us this became a potent reminder of the tendency to collapse into what is known, familiar and expected. We often make assumptions about how things are, or will be, as a direct result of our past experiences. We often lack of awareness regarding the basics of what we are not seeing and allowing. This collapse into unconsciousness causes the repeated experiences on the CD track we are choosing to run on. Often these are not the optimal experiences we desire to create in our lives.
We were able to put into practice on Tuesday morning what was reaffirmed during the retreat. We were on our way to the airport in Munich for our return flight. We became delayed by an accident on the Autobahn that had closed all of the lanes. Our taxi driver became confused and it seemed we would miss our flight. We had been focusing on the traffic moving when it occurred to us that there was a better vision. Knowing that we had the power to intend the day into being exactly as we most desired, we took our focus from the delay and frustration of the traffic and confused driver and held the vision of boarding the exact flight we were to travel on and arriving home safely and without problem. As we were detoured off the main road and saw the devastation of the wreckage, I was reminded how small our problem was relative to what the people who were involved in the accident were experiencing. We managed to arrive at the airport 20 minutes before our international flight was scheduled to leave. When we spoke to the agent and asked her to hold the flight for us explaining the traffic delay, she agreed. We managed to go through all the check points and board the flight. The flight was also then held an additional 15 minutes for other passengers who were delayed by the accident. So it the end it was all perfect! The perfect end to the perfect trip.