Greek Gods, Great Wolves and a Bunch of Cheese

The Greek God Proteus was characterized in mythology as a prophetic old man of the sea who served under Poseidon and had the ability to change form to avoid capture. Much like the water he resided in, Proteus had a fluidity that allowed him to adapt to situations as they changed. It was that ability to adapt and change that earned him domain over the rivers with their twists and turns as well as the oceans with all of their vastness. 

The wolf is seen as a symbol of fierce loyalty, strong family, powerful intelligence and deep spirituality. In fact of all land animals, it is the wolf that is often noted to have the highest level of supernatural ability and the wolf spirit animal has held a sacred place in indigenous cultures around the globe back to the time of ancient civilization. Early wolf species are said to have been in existence over 3 million years ago and our modern day gray wolf likely came to the Americas by crossing a land bridge that existed between Russia and Alaska 700.000 years ago. 

With all this mystery and mythology about wolves and Greek Gods, I'm guessing that you might be expecting some profound little know fact about cheese as well? Alas, all I can say about cheese is that we ate an awful lot of it on our family trip to the Wisconsin Dells last week, and that leads us to the rest of this week's story. 

For those of you who have been following along through the years, you may recall that we had to cancel our family Spring break trip last year due to the fact that we all got Covid. Our cancelled stay at the Great Wolf Lodge in The Wisconsin Dells allowed us one year to reschedule with full credit, so this past week we took advantage of our credit. Emma's actual spring break isn't until next week so we had to take her out of pre-school in order to get an early jump on the weekend, but we were more than willing to be a bit protean in that regard for a few days of magical family fun. 

On the day of our arrival, Emma was mesmerized by all the possibilities. The resort was brimming with shiny temptations like arcade games, pizza, souvenirs, pools and waterslides. What to do first, we wondered? After taking a little time to get our bearings and unpack, we changed into our suits and headed down to the waterpark. Emma immediately wandered into the wave pool which was something she had never encountered before. When the first set of waves started up, she stuck very close to my side and even asked me to hold onto her hands as she floated with her swim vest on in the rolling surf. In a short amount of time though, she became more confident and paddled around the pool on her own under our watchful eyes. 

A bit later we moved over to the area with the lazy river and the smaller water slides. Emma went through a similar discovery period proceeding with extreme caution at first, but then eventually getting more confident in going down the slides on her own with one of the two of us waiting for her at the bottom. By the end of the day she was even going down the enclosed tunnel slides that were far too intimidating for her upon first arrival. We ended the day exhausted and exhilarated at the same time and we even went out for a nice dinner at our favorite Wisconsin supper club called The Del-Bar where Emma had the most delicious chicken fingers and applesauce in the entire Great Lakes area. 

The next day I expected we would pick up where we left off and perhaps even take on some bigger adventures, but a surprising thing happened as we began our second day of water play. Emma put on her safety vest and dashed out into the wave pool only to find out that she was actually a little bit more uncertain about things than she was even the day before. She only stayed in the wave pool for about a minute and then she wanted to go back into the shallow area for younger kids as she allowed herself to get reacquainted with the whole environment. We had a similar result when we went to the water slides on the second day. In some ways it took her even longer to get comfortable with things she seemed to have mastered the day before. 

What's most interesting to me is that it was very clear that Emma seems to have expected things to feel more comfortable on the second day and when that wasn't the case she became a bit unsettled. I have spent quite a bit of time and energy over the last few years thinking, writing and speaking about the enormous energetic weight of expectations. The way I see it, unmet expectations are one of the single greatest sources of frustration in life. When we have a certain expectation about the way things are going to go or how we are going to feel, we are less likely to be able to adapt and change to the circumstances as they unfold. Apparently that tendency to have expectations begins the minute we come into this world and continues to be tested and affirmed throughout our early childhood and into our adult years. 

There is a way to get around living in an ongoing state of unmet expectations thoug. Each and every one of us has a Proteus like inner shapeshifter that can help us escape from the weight of expectations. When we learn to be more protean like the waters that Proteus ruled over, we can surrender into the current of life with less need to control specific outcomes. When we listen to that strong inner voice of intuition that tells us to have faith in things as they are, we can tap into our own supernatural abilities just the the great wolf. Who knows, with a little practice you might even learn to conjure up an order of cheese curds out of thin air! 

Well that's it for this week. Keep an eye open for an exciting announcement about my new website which will be launching on April 10th. There is also plenty of time to join in on the It's About Life membership circle for the month of April. We had an amazing first month talking about refining your mindset and we are heading into month number two where our theme will be acceptance. Each Monday for the next four weeks my podcast parter Deb Frischmon or I will send you a brief ten minute weekly reflection that you can watch at your convenience to get your week off to a scintillating start. Halfway through the month we'll gather live on Zoom on April 18th for an hour of powerful connection. You can give it a try for only $44 with no long term obligation by clicking on the link right here and signing up for one month. Feel free to reach out if you would like more details. 

Peace and blessings for a beautiful week,

Jim