The spiritual bright side of being 'Up a Shit Creek Without a Paddle'

Legend has it (ok, I grant you, Wikipedia isn’t necessarily “legit legend”) the phrase ‘up a shit creek’ derived from England's Haslar Creek in Portsmouth Harbour. Wounded sailors during the time of Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson (1771–1805), were taken there to be transported to the Royal Naval Hospital in Haslar to die or recover. The wounded soldiers were transported up Haslar creek by tramline; hence the phrase 'up a creek without a paddle'. They were held prisoner so that they wouldn’t escape while being treated, but some still attempted their run at freedom via the feces-filled sewers of the creek. BOOM! The term “shit creek” was born. Being caught or trapped in this creek meant you were undoubtedly stuck, in big trouble, or knee deep in you know what.

I provide this somewhat snoozy history lesson as a foundation for a spiritual metaphor about being ‘up a shit creek without a paddle’. Spiritually speaking, it might be easy to think that being upstream without a paddle is a bad thing. Not so if you’re tuning into the teachings of Abraham, where finding yourself upstream without a paddle is in fact a pretty sweet place to be. “Why?” Well, let’s chop it up for a sec about ‘upstream’ vs ‘downstream’ thoughts.

According to Abraham’s teachings, the Universe is providing a constant stream of Well-Being (aka: good shit) to all of us, all the time. The only reason we don’t experience this 24/7 goodness is because we tend to align with thoughts and emotions like doubt, worry, fear, disappointment, etc. (upstream) rather than keeping a PMA about all the good shit that’s right around the corner, if we could only just allow ourselves to get into the stream and flow naturally with it (downstream). In other words, for some crazy reason, we often prefer to paddle upstream, get in our own way, block our blessings - instead of simply going with the proverbial flow.

So the next time you feel like you’re in a bind or up a shit creek, make the choice to turn your boat (and your thoughts) downstream and watch how the Universe will surprise you. And BTW, drop the paddle…you never needed it anyway.