Trusting The Right Time - August 30

Not every decision needs to be made in haste. In today’s 5 Minutes in Nature, Liz reflects on the pressure we often feel to plan and act before we’re truly ready. Instead of giving in to frustration when the path ahead feels unclear, she encourages us to pause and trust that clarity will come.

Sometimes it simply takes time before the right direction reveals itself.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and it's a lovely mild warmish day here in my back garden and I've wandered around on a little walk today reflecting on what I might say and it just occurred to me as I came in through my garage into my back garden of what I wanted to say. As I'm looking across I can see a few bees buzzing around on the different flowers that are out and about in the back garden. You can probably hear there's a crow or a jay making a little bit of a noise maybe it's a magpie. I can't see it but I can certainly hear it up in the trees and I am really reflecting on my dear old dog today, My dear old dog Buzzy, But I'm not reflecting on it from a space of missing him or sadness but one of the things that he's helped me realize is we never really know what's right for us in the future but we absolutely do know what's right for us now. So why is my dog helping me see this? Well one of the conversations I have with people as I go out with them and I went out with a friend today for a walk. She hasn't seen me properly since Buzz was put to sleep back in July and one of the questions I often get asked is will you get another dog and the answer to that is simply I don't know. I really don't know and it might be that I will get another dog it might be I won't get another dog and when I sort of say well I'm not sure at the moment we're going to give it a bit of a break I usually then wait for people to fill in the gap because they take that as a cue to tell me what they think about a dog so they might say oh I couldn't get by without a dog and as soon as my dog went I needed another dog or they might say yeah they're a real tie and you know we realized that having a dog wasn't right for our lifestyle and so I hear different opinions and views of people about dogs and what's right for them and by inference what they think might be right for me and I think as I was reflecting on this conversation as I came back home I realized something very simple but quite profound is that being in a space of I don't know or it's not right yet is absolutely right. There's a kind of a sense that I need to have a plan for let's just use a dog as an example because it's quite a simple one but you could replace the dog with anything in your life really. I need a plan and I need to know the end point of that plan today and then I need to be working towards the outcome of that plan. Well it just doesn't seem to work like that in my life what I find is much more useful is that right at the moment I'm aware that it's not the right time to have a dog and you can fill in the blank right at the moment it might not be the right time for you to whatever it is for you and at some time it might be the right time and I won't know till I get to that time. There seems to be a real sense of urgency at knowing what you're going to be planning in the future today like you've got to start planning it today and start getting those goals in place. I don't see it like that I did I used to see it like that I used to think a lot of planning was important to get things in my life. Now I'm not knocking planning it's very very helpful it's just that it's not the be-all and end-all and actually what I find very nourishing is realizing that something might not be right for me now in this moment today and it might be right for me tomorrow but I won't know until I get there. So today is giving yourself a bit of permission if there's something in your world that you feel a bit of urgency about but you just don't know the answer to it at the moment that's because you don't know right at this moment it's not clear to you and angsting and thinking more and more about the answer won't produce an answer. What I find is best is taking my awareness away from that question knowing that right at the moment I don't know the answer and then providing a space for the answer to emerge in its good time. So will I get another dog? Not today, Not that I can see in the foreseeable future and I'm also open I'm also open that it might become the right time and when it is the right time I'll know what to do. I wonder what would open up in our lives if we lived them with a little bit more openness rather than thinking we need to know exactly what's going to happen day in day out. What difference would that make for you? For me it feels nourishing and comfortable and that feels like the right way to navigate my life at the moment.

Reviews

Thank you. I need to use the answer “I don’t know” more often when asked.
And I do deeply the understand the “I don’t know” in relation to the question of a new dog in your life after the passing of your dear Buzz. We too had to make that hard choice a few weeks ago for our elderly cat Sunny and while we have been saying leading up to this point that we wouldn’t be getting another cat at this stage of our lives, but now as I sit with grieving him I find myself in the I don’t know space. In all likelihood we won’t have a new cat join us, but I now feel more comfortable being in an I just don’t know space and I shall just let it be and see what a tomorrow may bring.
Our poor darling Billy dog is very lonely without his bossy cat mate so he needs extra loving care and pats and walks.

Thanks 🙏🏼 Liz
I totally get this.
I am waiting for my holiday plans to unfold more when I am actually in Ireland itself. I am sure that I can find appropriate accommodation in the area I go to.
Talking to people I feel that I have to have every day of my 6 weeks holiday planned down to the unth degree. It is honestly exhausting having those conversations and they are making me aware of not doing that to others.
🎶Whatever will be will be Que sera sera🎶
You, I, we will know what we need to know in the right time and place.
🌻🌿✨🌿🌻

Wow Liz-this is so helpful and very timely for me as I struggle with some course corrections in my life. Thank you. 🙏🏻🌀🩵

Thank you Liz! I’m trying to make a major life decision(moving to another state or country) but now I realize, after this talk, it doesn’t need to be made right now.