Anne and I met in Newport Beach, California back in the days before California became too overcrowded. She was a fine arts painter who had a pottery shop. I was a poet who watched over a friend’s gift shop. The front doors to our shops faced one another, and since our shopping village was quiet a good part of each day, we spent a lot of time together.
Anne was 21 years my senior and had the wisdom that comes from living those years and from looking at life through the eyes of an artist. When I was struggling with the ending of a poem, she told me that when she couldn’t get a painting right, she’d start over and paint from the outside edges toward the center instead of starting from the center and painting toward the edges. “Throw what you have out and start over,” she said. “This time start at the end and write to the beginning.”
As much as I disliked throwing away my perfect words, I did, and it worked. Once I had the ending, those perfect words came back even more better.
So what does this have to do with intuition?
To hear our intuition we have to throw away any preconceived ideas we have about the situation and surrender to our intuitive self. It is then the perfect answer comes.
Anne also taught me to stand back from a painting to see the beauty of the artist’s work. If standing too close, the brush strokes are interesting, but the art of the painting is seen from a bit of a distance.
Intuition is like that. Sometimes we get too close to the message we’re searching for, too tied to what we think our insight should be. Sometimes we just have to let go of what we think the answer should be and allow the intuitive answer to come.
Try this: The next time you are searching for an answer, ease up on desperately wanting the answer. The push for the answer often thrusts it away rather than bringing it to us. As we let go of needing to find the answer, we are surrendering our ego self and allowing our higher intuitive self to speak. It is then the answer that was there all along is seen clearly.