How cold you are..how warm you are!

Back in the 70's I remember playing party games at home where everyone got involved.  I loved seeing adults laughing alongside the children be it at a birthday celebration or festive season get together. One of the games involved one person going out of the living room while the others hid a thimble somewhere in the room.   It could be balanced on top of a picture frame, in the bottom of a vase, in the cassette player of the music centre, (a 1970's living room essential) or hidden in someones hair...Elnett hairspray and perms were all the rage back then!

Once it was well hidden the person would be called back in, they weren't given any clues other than being sung at!  As they entered the room the group would sing, "How cold you are, how cold you are.." if they were far away from the hidden thimble, and "How warm you are, how warm you are.."  as they got nearer.  Of course really close became roasting and burning hot, and the further way they were freezing and ice cold.  The seeker had to pay close attention to the variations from freezing to cold, to cool to warm, from hot to burning so they could really rummage round and look for the thimble wherever the singing peaked with, "How roasting, burning hot you are!!" 

It was a laugh (but maybe you had to be there!) as some folk no matter how loudly you sung and hinted how close they were to the thimble would still step back and look elsewhere.  Frustrating to witness as we'd be back singing, "How cool you are..." until they really paid attention to the words we were saying.  It was as if they walked into the room with a fixed idea of where we'd hidden the thimble, and no matter what we sung,  they were going to look there anyway.

I get the feeling that if I played that game today I'd be able to establish who is good at listening to the truth, and who has such a strong headmind that they believe they don't need to listen to get it right.  

As in hunt the thimble, as in the way we walk blindfolded through life ignoring our personal sign posts to the life that is right for us!

We don't have a group of happy part goers following us around singing "how cold you are" when we're about to make a mistake, or "how warm we are" when we're on the right path...BUT we do have our very own bodymind intelligence which is the all-knowing part of us.  If we just practised listening carefully and really noticed what feels right before we make a decision, we'd get far more hot, roasting, cosy as toast moments and far less, cold, freezing times.

"An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore." - Edward de Bono

"You learn something every day if you pay attention." - Ray LeBlond