The Universe Doesn’t Always Know Best

You’ve all heard the expression that when all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail? Well, the same logic applies to interventions from the universe. When all you want is a sign, potential signs are all that you can see. A song on the radio, an article in the newspaper, a quarter on the ground. Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Indeed.

Photo by Rubin 110

We know what we should do or want to do or shouldn’t do or don’t want to do, but we’re waiting on that little push, that cosmic rubber stamp, something to reinforce our own instinct (or lack thereof), to reassure us that there are rhymes and reasons and most importantly, that there are right and wrong choices to make or paths to embark on. We crave the simple morality of this is what’s best or being saved from yourself and while that knowledge is surely within us to be tapped, we still prize the outside perspective or opinion more highly. It’s comforting to think the world has your back or at least your best interests at heart.

What strikes me as funny is that as often as we look for signs or implore the universe to validate us, we have a habit of ignoring those signs that we do receive and can easily decode without a cosmic script. Signs that you’re dating a cheater, that your current career path isn’t in line with your values or long-term goals, signs that that nagging cough or suspicious lump should really be checked out, etc. We’re adept at disregarding the signs that don’t tell us what we want to hear while we’re urgently scanning the horizon for ones that will reinforce our impulses or take the burden of responsibility for choosing a direction (and the accountability for pursuing said direction and its consequences) out of our hands.

We already know the answers or know how to find them, but that requires trusting our own gut, doing our homework, taking a risk and believing that we can survive the fallout (should it come to that). But where’s the security, the comfort, the perceived certitude in that? Better to hand it over to the universe and trust what the tea leaves tell us. Really, who needs good judgment and personal autonomy when a string of tenuously-linked coincidences will do?