If You Feel Lost, You’re on Your Way to the Miraculous

If You Feel Lost, You’re on Your Way to the Miraculous

by Tama J. Kieves

If you choose to live a life that launches you into the highest stratospheres of your potential, yet fits you like silk, you might first have to stumble into some brick walls. Poet Galway Kinnell says, “And the first step, shall be to lose the way.” When I read this at my “Unleash Your Calling” workshops, participants gaze at their shoes. Some look at me as though they want their money back – plus interest. They don’t want to lose the way. They want to find their way. They want me to find their way. And they want to find their way – and faster than Google, thank you very much. But this is the hitch and transformation of living an inspired life. You have to hit exasperation and drop all your marbles. You have to let your ideas and plans disappear like startled pigeons. Because only the open-minded can look in completely new directions. And only the lost will ask for help.
You are called to walk off the beaten track and light upon secret turnpikes. That means there often won’t be road signs or easy entry ramps. There won’t be mass transportation or park rangers. Your truth will not be on the evening news. The creative life is not driven by external cues. That’s the point. You don’t need those inferior tools. You have guidance.
If you want to live an extraordinary life, you have to open to an extraordinary presence within you. Some of us might call that experience God or the Universe. Others may call it their creative mind, True Self, Goddess instinct or primal intuition. Whatever you call it, please call on it – often. Learn your captain’s language and you will not feel lost. Why rely on clumsy, conventional wisdom to navigate an unparalleled life? The spiritual study of “A Course in Miracles” asks, “Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him?”
I think those of us who dare to live a larger life often feel smaller and more uncertain. We are walking naked into the unknown. We are leaving behind the safety of mass agreement and approval. It would be a sad situation if we truly were alone. But we’re not. We have guidance. We have a knowing sense within us, a more vibrant encompassing compass, and this beloved presence will empower us beyond our wildest dreams.
But most of us don’t consult this incredible resource until our old answers no longer bring us peace, freedom or prizes. That’s why feeling uncertain is the first step toward a velvet life. It’s when we become available or ready to expand our understanding. In twelve-step programs they call it “being teachable.” That means that “know-it-alls” are a bit hobbled in this realm. Finally, poetic cosmic justice. Because maybe those of us who sometimes feel as though we can’t find our way out of a paper bag might just careen our way into grace. Author Anne Lamott, quoting a friend of hers, says, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with.”
And all that being said, you do deserve to feel secure inside, resolved and whole. It’s time to don your eagle wings. Stop going it alone. Ask for help. Ask within. Begin this vital communication. Bring your hesitancy with you and even your cynicism. But don’t deny yourself the privilege of using your full strength. You have beautiful radar within you and it only gets more resonant with practice.
What a brilliant design. We have to feel frustrated by life so that we’ll reach deep within us to find answers we didn’t find in the world. Perhaps they’re the answers we came to give the world.

Tama J. Kieves is the bestselling author of “THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!)” She is also a national A Course in Miracles presenter and sought-after speaker and career coach who has helped thousands worldwide to discover and live their true life’s work.