Growing intuition

To me, the purpose of my life is to find my true calling and live it.  In order to do this, I must clear away all the things I think and carry that are not mine.  When each of us lives out our true calling, we are doing the job God put us here to do.  Living out that job will lead us to live in the flow of love. When we live in the flow of love, we experience happiness, we are closer to God, and we contribute peace to the world. (I am reminded of a recent mantra of mine that I got from a guided meditation: The only source of happiness is the flow of Love.)

The process of clearing away things that don't belong to us requires a well developed sense of intuition.  How can we know if something really matters to us if we don't trust in our own gut reactions?  And how can we discern intuition from fear without practice?  We cannot.  

So, one of my central jobs as a parent is to aid my kids in developing their own intuition.  We do many things as a family to aid in this process, and I have recently integrated a new tool in this effort.

I bought a deck of Oracle Cards at one of my favorite spots, EarthSpeak in Kimberton, PA. (You can also find them here.) Each Oracle Card has a beautiful picture and a message:

At dinner, I shuffle the cards and each child takes a turn picking.  When they choose a card, they read the message and show the picture.  They then tell us whether they think the message is for them or for one of their family members, and why.

This calls on each child to use their intuition about external information, and to decide if it is relevant to them.  It also gives the children a chance to reflect to their siblings what they think about their sibling's life and inner process.

For example, my oldest, S, drew a card that said "Wish Upon a Star - Make a wish and expect the very best." She said she thought the message was for her younger sister, N, as N often second guesses her own skills and creations.  N agreed and said, "I should practice expecting the best for myself." It was so moving to watch the two girls, aged 11 and 8, talk in such a caring and thoughtful way.  And N felt so validated when she heard her sister make such a insightful observation.

Do you agree that intuition is an important life skill?