No One's Coming!

Unique Perspectives: No One's Coming!

By Kim Stevens

Imagine this …

It’s midnight. The sky is a deep, moonless black. For some reason – don’t ask me why – you’re standing at the top of Camelback Mountain, 2,133 feet above sea level, and you’re there by all yourself. You try texting someone. No reception. You try yelling. No one can hear you. You try shining your flashlight into the night sky...

Battery’s dead. So what happens next? A whole lot of nothing. But instead of breaking down in the shadowy gloom, afraid and alone, you suddenly feel an enlightening sense of “I can do this.” You put one foot in front of the other, trekking at a steady pace down unfamiliar terrain, and it’s the most empowering feeling of your life. Everything changed for me when I finally accepted the idea that in the midnight forest of my own life, no one is ever coming to save me. And that’s totally fine. (This is based on a true story, by the way. When I moved into a little mountain house, I spent the first night there alone in a storm. The electricity was out and I was surrounded by complete darkness. I lit a candle and suddenly had this overwhelming feeling that no one was coming and I was going to be OK. Looking back, I needed that solitary experience to know how empowering being alone can be.) When I was going through my yoga teacher training, one of the things that was read to our group was a passage written by Hopi Elders, and the last line is: "We are the ones we've been waiting for.” It was very powerful. It was a relief. Like giving in to this Higher Power, relinquishing myself to the universe also released me. I was no longer waiting for a permission slip to move forward. Or backward. Or in whatever direction I wanted to go. My connection to all the wonders of this world is so much bigger than me. A “no one’s coming” mindset means I’m solely responsible for my future, whether that’s the next minute, the next month or the next year. I don’t need to be rescued. I don’t need the positive affirmations of others. I don’t need a pat on the back. All I need is my own self-belief that I can … and I will. When I understood in that epiphanic moment that I can find the right footing on my own – the exterior factors, the chaos, the noise, none of that matter anymore. Nothing could shake me. It was a powerful boost to jumpstart living life on my own terms, the way I wanted to, knowing the only person who would always be there to save me is me. Like the Hopi Elders said, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.