Hot water

Abraham-Hicks talks about allowing one’s inner guidance to work and actually guide one’s behavior, rather than paying so much attention to what others say and whatever passes for conventional wisdom. I think of tuning in to my inner guidance as pretty much the same as being here and now and attentive to whatever presents itself, always a good idea.

Esther Hicks used to relate an experience of hers to illustrate the point. It seems Esther found herself in a hotel room wanting, I think, a shower. She turned on what she expected to be the hot water and got cold instead. She expected hot water because, at least in the United States, hot water is found on the left. If there are separate knobs for hot and cold, the hot is on the left. If there’s only one control knob or dial or lever, turning it counterclockwise or pointing it to the left brings hot water. That’s what I expect when confronted with an unfamiliar faucet anyway.

So Esther let what she thought was the hot water run and run and still got only cold water. Then, in desperation I suppose, she turned on what should have been cold water and got hot water at last. She then congratulated herself on being able to ignore her unexamined and erroneous premises and get what she wanted in spite of them. I’ve heard that story any number of times, but it’s not something I had ever thought much about.

Last week I found myself staying in the unoccupied apartment of a friend, and after a nine-hour drive from Chico I wanted a shower. Yes, I turned on what I thought was the hot water and got cold. I let it run—still cold. Since the apartment was in a large complex, there was no telling how far the heated water had to travel, and who knew if the pipes were insulated well enough to keep the water hot until it got to me? The owner hadn’t stayed there in a while, so maybe the glitch had gone unnoticed, and I couldn’t very well complain on her behalf, so too bad about a hot shower—cold was the best I could do. That’s what I was thinking.

The next day I remembered Esther’s incident and turned on what should have been the cold water and without even letting it run the water was warm right away. I could’ve done that before, but I was on automatic pilot, and my automatic pilot is as goofy as yours. That’s it. I’m sticking to manual from here on.