Pushmi-Pullyu

Do you remember Doctor Dolittle, the man who learned to talk to the animals? First there was the the book for youngsters by Hugh Lofting. And later the movie starring Rex Harrison.

Or are you too young?? If so, check it out!

The animal I remember the best is the pushmi-pullyu, an imaginary creature resembling a llama or an antelope, but with a head at both ends. When it tried to move, both heads would try to go in opposite directions!  Push and pull…and obviously getting nowhere!

Have you ever felt like you were a pushmi-pullyu at some point in your life? Torn between two seemingly opposite directions/ decisions/ choices?

Have you been tempted to just stand still in despair or frustration about possibly making the “wrong” choice?  And also wondered if “no” choice might be better than the “wrong” choice?

To take the job or not?

To stay or leave a relationship?

To save or spend that tax refund?

To do “it” now or wait until next week?

Does it help to know that making a decision will enable you to gain some momentum and that it’s always easier to adjust a moving object than a stationary one? That having made a decision and having begun, you still could make another decision if you don’t like the one you’ve made?

In reference to that pushing/pulling, I’d like to share with you the following experience of a friend of mine from a number of years back. Those travel bags had just come out with wheels.

Pushing it through the airport and trying to get over the doorsills in the doorways was a struggle and often got her off track. And it was hard work to push it.

Pulling the bag was much less effort and more effective. She was able to decide where it would go and thus could avoid the bumps and make the necessary detours in the process of moving it along.

When I imagine myself as the suitcase, I can allow the “force” to pull me along smoothly and easily.

Or I can imagine myself as a river, like the one that carved out the Grand Canyon.

Water is one of the best images for me about letting my life be easy. Of course we know that water doesn’t flow upstream because one of the laws of life is gravity!

And water is one of the most flexible substances on our planet. It is pure non-resistance and, even so, a powerful force of nature. It can wear away even the hardest rock.

We can’t imagine the Grand Canyon being formed without the relentless pull downstream.

A great river begins as a little stream high up in the mountains, and it’s usually just running over the boulders or beneath the fallen tree. It doesn’t stop and wait for its energy or its force to build up so it can push an obstacle out of its path. It’s not interested so much in the boulder or the tree as it is about flowing along the path of least resistance to where it is being pulled.

We can use this image to understand how we can flow, not fight, with our path.

Most of us would like our lives to flow, to be filled with grace and ease. Alas, how many of us have yet to achieve this?

I think we all know that if we will listen to it, the “still, small voice within” can enable us to acknowledge the “right” decision. And that making that right decision will enable us to go with our natural flow.

Have you ever experienced that difference? That of being pushed or being pulled? And have you learned anything from it?

 

 

Tags: Dr. Dolittle, flow, Grand Canyon, Pushmi-pullyu