A Cosmic 2x4

My friend and I use the term “cosmic 2x4” to capture a phenomenon in our lives. We have noticed that when we don’t listen to the whisper of our souls saying “something is off” and ignore the signs that we need to make a shift, the universe hits us with a cosmic 2x4 to help us get the message. Picture a lumber-store 2x4 board being swung toward you, like the universe is trying to hit you to wake you up - that’s a cosmic 2x4.  

It gives us language and imagery that help us see that things need to change in life. 

This friend and I have both had a few cosmic 2x4 moments in our life and we have watched people we love get hit by them too. You can likely relate to this also, we all have people we can think of in these examples: We have ignored dysfunction in an organization then were super hurt by a toxic leader, or ignored the early symptoms of disease then heard a big diagnosis, or ignored speed limits and had a rollover accident, or ignored relationship red flags and had a messy divorce, or ignored people commenting on our over-drinking and then ended up in rehab, or didn’t pay bills on time and a poor credit score halts the home purchase, or got defensive when a family member commented on our working too much and later crashed from burnout. 

We hear the whispers, ignore them (or don’t want to face them) then something big happens to get our attention - the cosmic 2x4. 

Once, when I was struggling with an organization I was consulting with on their ethics in leadership, I came out of an explosive meeting and said to her, “it feels like the bad guys won.”  She said, “I don’t see it that way at all, I see that this was the cosmic 2x4 to get you out of there, away from the bad guys. God has other big stuff for you to do, but not there.” I could feel the shift in that moment. With that awareness, I could move away from an attitude of “this bad thing happened to me” and into “this happened FOR me so that I would leave and be free to go do other things.” And years later, I can say she was exactly right. 

The cosmic 2x4 hurts upon impact, but it is actually happening for us to wake up and make a change. 

Think of the crappy things that have happened in your own life. Could you see that instead of these things happening to you, they were happening for you?

Cosmic 2x4’s help us make a change, move on, pay attention, wake up, surrender, get the message, do it differently, get healthy, leave, reset, expand, slow down, get still, notice things, and appreciate life. 

So why does it have to hurt? Because sometimes that is the only way we wake up. But we can avoid the deep pain if we learn to listen more closely and take action earlier. The whispers are your intuition speaking to you - listen to it. 

Oprah Winfrey describes it this way:

“Life whispers to you all the time. It whispers, and if you don’t get the whisper, the whisper gets louder. If you don’t get the whisper when it gets louder, I call it like a little pebble — a little thump — upside the head. The pebble or the thump upside the head usually means it’s gone into a problem. If you don’t pay attention to the problem, the pebble then becomes like a brick. The brick upside your head is a crisis, and If you don’t pay attention to the brick upside your head, the crisis turns into a disaster and the whole house — brick wall — comes falling down.” 

What whispers are you hearing in your life right now that may need your attention? 

Let’s pay attention to the whispers and take some action to avoid the disaster. 

I’m on this journey of being human with you,