We installed a wood burning stove in our living room which we use to heat our home. It works wonderfully well and it continues to provide guidance as well as warmth. This week it demonstrated to me the difference between “inertia” and “stuck” and how to dissolve both.
I never had a wood burning stove before; I thought that it would be just like a closed stove. However, a wood burning stove has an air tight glass door on it so you can see the flames. You can also feel the heat the same as a fireplace, but because of the seal on the door the heat is not dispersed up the chimney which makes it many times more efficient at heating.
This means that you can’t just “throw” wood on the fire. You have to open the sealed door which of course then allows the oxygen to flood into the fire. Therefore, you have to pause before fully opening the door so that the fire does not build too quickly from that rush of air.
One day it had warmed up outside so I hadn’t put any new wood on the fire during the afternoon. That evening as I prepared to build the fire again it appeared that all that was left was a few very small embers.
On this same day I was thinking about the difference between “inertia” and “stuck”.
Because it appeared that there was no fire I wasn’t as cautious as usual when I opened the door, but the moment I did the fire literally exploded into flame. ”That,” I thought, “is what becoming “unstuck” looks like.”
Like those embers all it takes is the swift infusion of oxygen, or in our case Truth, and what has been silently and steadily burning within will burst into bloom. It doesn’t take much.
On the other hand there is inertia. This can happen when we have let the fire go out completely. Then it takes a lot of small tinder, coaxing, and a long build up before the fire begins to burn efficiently again. That is what inertia looks like.
We often think of inertia as not moving. But, really inertia is either a state of rest or of motion that is resistant to change. We see this in our everyday life all the time. It is our habits. It is the way we have always done it, whether we are doing something or just standing still.
To change our state of being, like the fires, it takes an outside force proportional to how ingrained the habit. How dead the fire is beforehand determines how much force, or fuel, is needed to start it burning efficiently again.
Approaching this from the right premise of spiritual perception, this would mean that it would take more awareness and discipline of thought to change a bigger, or more ingrained, habit of thought then a smaller one when we are in the state of mind of inertia.
On the other hand, when we are “stuck” the desire and intent is already burning. Then it takes just a small amount of “oxygen,” or awareness of Truth flooding into our consciousness to propel us out of “stuck” and into Life.
Of course these two ideas are intertwined. Both states of mind called “stuck” and “inertia” are misunderstood perceptions of the True nature of Life which have become habits of thinking and acting.
However, understanding the difference between the two may help relieve the frustration we sometimes feel when we have been steady students of Truth and yet it feels as if the fire of our life has not yet begun to burn efficiently.
There is great comfort and relief in knowing that the Infinite Principle never experiences inertia, or stuck, or is even aware of our misperception. It is always operating in the harmony and perfection of graceful unfolding.
This means that as we add the fuel of awareness and perception and diligently tend to the fire within, what appears as “stuck” or “inertia” will dissolve into nothingness. Either state does not exist in the perfection of the Truth of Being. As the mist dissolves we will experience our current highest awareness of Love Loving Itself in practical ways far beyond our human design and planning.
Open the door of your fire within and let in the Truth of who you are. it doesn’t make any difference whether this action explodes your life into bloom, or if you have to diligently build the fire. Sooner or later the illusion or “stuck” or “inertia” will dissolve and the infinite abundance that is you will stand revealed.
