Breaking Free of False Barriers

By Nancy Rynes, author of Awakenings from the Light

It's autumn and I'm driving the back roads of Oregon, heading to the southeastern part of the state for a photography trip. It's a long drive from Seattle but I enjoy the solitude of the wide open spaces. The land is dry here east of the Cascade Mountains, with huge skies, deep canyons, rolling hills, a lot of grassland, and few trees. The roads wander across huge pastures thousands of acres in size, with fences separating one pasture (or "range") from another. The roads cut across openings in the fence lines, and cattle wander on these large pastures, often times standing on the asphalt, staring down any vehicle daring to cross their path.

Cliffs of the South Steens in Oregon, USA
Driving around the back roads of the western USA, you would notice a lot of these areas of open range. What keeps the cattle and other livestock in one large range from wandering on top of the road, through the opening in the fence, and into the next pasture? After all, no gates cross the road as it moves from one pasture to the next; drivers can't be constantly stopping to get out of their vehicles to open and close gates.

The answer is cattle guards.

Cattle Guard Across a Road in Eastern Oregon, USA
Cattle guards are a nifty replacement for gates in situations like this. They control access between pastures when a road runs across fence lines. But there is a big difference between a cattle guard and a gate: they are not a doorway that opens and closes to control the roaming livestock like a gate would. Instead, a cattle guard is a trench that runs across the roadway in line with the fence (and connected to it), over which a metal grate rests. The metal grate is an open steel framework that allows autos and trucks to cross, but cattle can't tolerate the footing because their feet fall through it. They quickly learn not to venture across. And since cattle don't jump distances very well (regardless of what you heard in nursery rhymes), they don't try to escape like the infamous cow leaping over the moon. The cattle guard does its job and effectively keeps the livestock contained.

It's a beautifully simple way to replace a gate and keep animals controlled while at the same time allowing vehicles easy access along the roadways.

Top view of a Cattle Guard
But as I continue to drive south of Burns, Oregon, enjoying the black basalt cliffs on one side and a huge, green marsh on the other, I realize that there's an even easier way to keep cattle contained in an area. The other method does not involve digging a trench and placing an expensive metal grate across it, nor does it involve an inconvenient gate. Ranchers use fake cattle guards instead!

It turns out that a fake or simulated cattle guard keeps cattle contained just as well as a real one. A fake cattle guard fits in the same place along a fenceline as a real one would and at a casual glance, looks real.

A Fake Cattle Guard
But instead of a trench with an expensive metal grate laid across it, a fake cattle guard simply consists of black and white lines painted across the surface of the roadway so that it looks like a grate is in place...at least to most cattle. The cattle don't see or process visual information like humans so the black and white stripes appear to be a series of ridges and trenches and look perilous to cross. They don't know that it's just paint on the roadway and perfectly safe. To them it looks like a series of deep cracks running across the opening in the fence and preventing them from escaping to the other side. In fact, these simple painted lines look so impossible to cross that the cattle usually don't even try.

Close-up of a Fake Cattle Guard

But the reality is that they could easily walk right over these painted lines and win their freedom, if and only if they could change they way they view the situation.

It's interesting that a two dimensional barrier can keep a three-dimensional creature contained, but this can only happen because the creature's perception is false and it has a fear of pushing at its perceived boundaries.

So far, even though these fake cattle guards have been used for years, most cattle have not been able to change their view of the situation and escape their pastures.

Again, it's all about perception.

As I cross one of these fake cattle guards, I realize that people can sometimes perceive situations in a similar way--we can be shut off from larger, grander possibilities, and even freedom, simply by illusions, fears, or false truths that come from the old ways we perceive situations.

I then wonder if illusions or misperceptions are keeping me from a grander possibility. One in particular comes to mind: if you've read Awakenings from the Light, you might remember that my left collarbone was broken in the accident and never actually healed. The doctor told me that it would never heal because of the type of break I had suffered, and I actually believed him. While driving over that fake cattle guard, I immediately see that his statement, even though he believed it might be true, effectively fenced in my own beliefs about my ability to heal my body. 

I have one of those instant "Ah-Ha" moments! I had been carrying around a false belief that my collarbone would never heal just because someone who I perceived as an authority told me that it would never heal. Once I identify the false belief, it seems to evaporate in an instant. I now know my bone is healing perfectly, just as it should. I replace the old belief with, "My collarbone has now knit back together perfectly" and visualize it as being whole and fully healed each morning before I start  my day. (Side note: While I have not had a scan done recently, I have noticed that I can move and exercise my arm now in ways that were impossible just a few months ago. I can easily do pushups and pull-ups again without the feelings of looseness in my shoulder that had been present since my accident.)

Do you think you might have any of these false perceptions or beliefs keeping you fenced in about something in your life? Hold this question with you over the next few days and see if anything comes to mind.

The good news is that once you see a false perception for what it is, you can learn to let it go in order to clear a way for a higher state of awareness to come in.

On my way back north to Seattle from southeastern Oregon, I drive back over two of those fake cattle guards and notice something beautiful: it's obvious that at least one steer has discovered the secret and made a beeline for the greener pastures on the other side. Muddy cattle tracks cross right over the top of those painted lines on the roadway. At least one has found a way out of the old, false pattern of seeing things!
Blessings,

Nancy

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Bio: Nancy Rynes is a speaker, artist, and author of "Awakenings from the Light" (available from Amazon.com). Nancy's books and workshops teach you how to bring a little bit of Heaven to your life on Earth. She divides her time between Seattle, Washington and Tucson, AZ. Check out her website at NancyRynes.com 
Copyright © 2018-2019 Nancy Rynes, All rights reserved.