“Oh Goody!” is a phrase I learned to appreciate from Mrs. Popoff. It signifies delight when an opportunity to work on oneself suddenly arises.
It is the unexpected moments when Life hands one an opportunity, sometimes in the least assuming way. I find these instances can provide a chance to work on a deeper level. Here’s a happening right now moment:
My intention this morning was to work on my blog as I usually do on this day each week. As I’m preparing to begin, I receive a fraud alert from my credit card company with an urgent message to call them.
I’m immediately identified with the situation and spend the next hour sorting it out. All the while, I am remembering to be patient and relax my tensions because all I really want to do is get back to my intention to write. This delay is weighing on me.
As I’m finally going upstairs to my study, Jack mentions that he’s about to head to Frederick. Turns out he wants to go to an art gallery there to see the piece he has on display before the show ends.
An Oh Goody! Moment
This is the opportunity. The Oh Goody moment—where I give up what I want to do. I choose to sacrifice my own habitual pattern in order to support Jack. Going to see his art with him seems to be the right thing to do in this moment.
I ask if I can go and he is delighted. We can have lunch together in Frederick, it will be a mini spur of the moment exeat for us on this beautiful cool, sunny, pre-fall day.
When I mention that I’d hoped to work on my blog, he offers to wait for me. The situation takes on a flow that feels right. The energy between us that recently had been cloudy clears.
By being able to do the work of letting go of my usual pattern, something has opened for me.
But I don’t think I could have had this Oh Goody moment if I had not already been working with the Themes and daily tasks from the ongoing Course of Study. It takes work to do work.
Yet another reminder to find ways to work with others which in turn supports one’s own work.
Hi Roberta, I really appreciated this sharing.. Mary Pearce used to say Oh Goodie too, but more for ice cream!!
So often things that don’t go as we planned can work better, & the bonus as you say is the Reminding ‘oh goodie’ Factor..
I was happy to have read this yesterday when this morning, when I was halfway getting up, my sister phoned and as usual chatted for about 1/2 an hour about nothing, much of it about her friends that I don’t know, or rather odd statements,.. etc.. so thanks to your blog, I said oh goodie & settled down to rotate sensation, feeling my love for her rather than my habitual irritation.. yea Oh Goodie💞🕊️
OH Hajah, love this real-life example of an Oh Goody moment!
My sister from another mother, Hajah, partially provided the observation I was going to share, because mine also concerned Mary Pearce; I had the joy of working closely with her and Lilian Massey in their visits to Claymont. She did love ice cream; she also said, “Oh, goody!” when an opportunity like the one Roberta describes arose. The one I remember involved the somewhat unexpected visit of a group of Naqshbandi dervishes to Claymont, and the need to pull together the proper hospitality, as edep (sp?) or spiritual courtesy (or external consideration, as we might say in the Fourth Way) required. “Oh, goody,” cried Mary, while her friend Lilian smiled her wise smile. “You have the opportunity to turn this inconvenience inside out, urning and make something truly welcoming for the sheikh and his students.” The idea of turning my reaction inside out gave me a smile, too, and I went to work with the other Claymont folks to offer a real welcome to the dervishes. The amusing approach Mary suggested was also the shock that real Work required. Thanks for the reminder, Roberta. There were so many blessings.
AND thank you, Georgia, for this lovely memory. I’m wondering if this happened on a weekend when I was working in the hospital, I did miss a lot on those weekends. I didn’t get a lot of time with Lilian and Mary, so thank you for this. I wonder if Gurdjieff was the one who started “Oh Goody!” (somehow I can’t “hear” that from him, but then…)