By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
Last week I was reminded not to be too inflexible- but not to be SO flexible I’m a doormat.
That’s a tough one for me, folks. I’m a fist hipped woman and I have my own way of doing things. I never followed any crowd and even within my own faith community, I’m an individual.
My individuality is most noticeable in the things I create. I even got in trouble for it in art class in High School. The art teacher didn’t like the fact I did similar themes each time- she said she wanted me to expand. I told her off. She gave me a bad grade and I told her I did not care.
I haven’t changed.
I have learned, however, that sometimes we have to do what a favorite musician of mine said- we have to learn inside the box before we strike out and create our own way of doing things. Still, in creative disciplines, this allows for a lot of personal interpretation, and truthfully, if we all did everything in exactly the same way, I think we would die of boredom.
Take for example one of my favorite things, classical Japanese Noh theatre. It was developed in the 14th century. It developed out of something called sarugaku that was popular in the 11th through 14th centuries and that was developed from dances that came from 8th century China. Up until the 1940’s men were the only ones who performed, but after that, women began to perform too. It’s safe to say it took a while for major changes to take from the first dance form to today.
However, there is a wide open area that is left for individual interpretation. The use of the masks in the dance productions varies. There are more than 200 different masks that can be used, and it is up to the experts exactly which masks are used. You would think there was one mask for each character played, but some masks are used interchangeably. The masks are created in such a way that that they look different depending on the lighting and angles they are positioned, and they look like they are alive and changing facial expressions due to the actor’s body movements.
As far as I am concerned, all of this is magical enough, but it teaches a lesson. Things change, even if it takes a long time, and change is done to make improvements. As magical people, if we are “my way or the highway” every day of our lives, we will miss opportunities to grow, improve, and do something very important- COOPERATE. Nobody likes being involved with an inflexible tyrant. Then again, nobody respects a wimp who lets everybody push them around. So, what is a witch to do?
Balance.
Case in point. I was asked to take a special assignment at a day job. I did the work. I was asked to amend it. I made the requested changes. I was told that was not good enough. I stopped and checked everything, going over the criteria because – hey, I’m not perfect. I realized that I did what I was asked to do. To the letter. There was nothing I did not do to meet the criteria. Someone was being anal and thought they could do it better. So, I told them to go right ahead and do so and I said I would step down from the special project because I could see they wanted to do it themselves. Suddenly, I was told how appreciated and valued I was and how they hoped I would stay on because my skills and experience were helpful to the team. So, I stayed on.
If I had refused to make initial amendments, that would have been inflexible. If I had done it once again, that would have been excessive. I set a boundary, but I did cooperate. I even offered to step aside. Having said that- it was a dangerous move. On the job, saying “No” can land you in hot water or get you fired. There are going to be people mad I would not let them push me around. However, I have had jobs where I never said no, and let me tell you- that’s worse. Being uncooperative doesn’t serve anybody well. It makes us unbearable to deal with. Sometimes, though, we have to stick to our guns. How do we know when to do which?
Each situation is different. If you are feeling lazy and don’t want to be bothered with being accommodating- trust me I understand- but you need to be flexible. If you have done all you can to be accommodating, and it is never enough- somebody is being demanding and they need to be told no. As magical people, we understand that magic is within us and all around us. Being flexible enough to adapt so we succeed and harmonize with other people is a powerful form of magic anybody can master.
Blessed Be.
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Lady Saoirse has studied magic and lore for most of her life but started walking her own magical path after being spiritually reborn in the desert. Today she is a High Priestess for The Temple of the Goddess, she is a psychic advisor and spiritual counselor, she is a member of the spiritual family at the Magical Druid in Ohio, and she shares her gifts as a Psychic and Content Writer for Spiritual Blossom and Mysticsense and she writes for PaganPages.Org emag.