TAKING A SHOWER WITH YOUR CLOTHES ON

When we interact with one another and the world, we are clothed with our biases, our agendas, our beliefs, our thoughts about our past, our thoughts about the future, our beliefs and thoughts about God or Higher Power or Great Mystery or It, our psychological baggage and scars, our addictions, our needs, our "truth", and our ignorance to name a few articles of clothing and then we wonder why we don't get the full benefit of our interactions. We wonder why we feel so alienated or so separate from others at times. We wonder why we don't get it that we are ONE. We wonder why things fall apart. We wonder why there is so much discord in the world. We wonder why so many of us end up ship wrecked or languishing on some barren island wondering what life is all about.

Come naked before God and surrender all the stuff we think is so indisputably important. Surrender doesn’t mean you won’t have any preferences it just means that things will be put in their proper perspective so that like the Emperor's Clothes in the age-old tale, we seem to be clothed but we are not. The clothing will indeed be invisible.

All we have to offer ourselves, God, and each other is our very self. If sacrifice should be made to a god, it would be all the stuff we think we are and all the stuff we think is important. The only thing that is important is Love and you can't do Love when your stuff is more important than that.

When you meet another soul who sees this way and you do too, you experience One. There are no longer two people, only One Thing when you interact. Though speaking and acting are part of the interaction, at times there is only profound silence into which each falls savoring the oneness that is so full, nothing else is needed - no conversation, no words, no needs, no explanations, no jockeying for first place, nothing! There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can compare with this or makes you feel so complete. Far too many of us will live and die without ever having experienced it. If we are able to come before another person in our nakedness and the other person is not able to do this, we can at least stay within our truth and offer to this person the silence, the space, the love, and the opportunity to do the same just by virtue of our being with them in this amazing space. It is always their choice and none of our business what they do with the opportunity.

This ignorance is what sets the tone on this planet and is the father of all deceit, all discord and chaos, all suffering, all acts of violence and hatred, all misuse of power. If one by one we could come to know rather than to be ignorant, we would bring the whole planet to uprightness. However, it is the very discord, suffering, chaos, and such that help to rouse us from our sleep. That is quite a paradox.

We shall shower with our clothes on until we admit they get in the way and we realize how much we are missing.

SEVEN STEPS OF THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

Some have suggested that the spiritual journey is not easy and it takes a lot of work. I can't argue that one. I can say the prerequisite to that is the desire to do it. Without that, you can't get to first base.

Some have suggested that choosing the spiritual path means that you have to be willing to make changes. Perhaps I would add that you must be willing to be changed.

Looking at the 12 Steps of AA I can see that it IS a spiritual path if done thoroughly and willingly and if you truly work the program, you will be changed. If one is Catholic and follows a "rule" or as a lay person uses similar disciplines and is dedicated and sincere and willing, they will be changed. Some other religious or spiritual persons arrive there by other disciplines or other means. There are a number of books out there, ideas, disciplines, and much more or you can put together one of your own. There are many modes of transportation to get you there. The key is desire, willingness, and follow through.

So it seems that:

1. You must decide that your life could be better or that there is something more to be experienced or had. Or you must decide that you need to go deeper with understanding Life or God or Purpose and to experience more in terms of spiritual awakening or something similar.

2. You must be willing to be changed or even desire to be changed in the process. Perhaps as a seeker you have reached a point where what has been has not worked or been satisfactory and you realize that if you keep on doing the same old things you will be getting the same results. Perhaps some major challenge or tragedy or event has occurred that signaled a "wake up" call. Or perhaps there is just a call deep within that seems to beckon you forward.

3. You must desire with intent and determination to pursue some course of action that will lead you step by step in a spiral fashion closer to their goal. Words without action is talking the talk and walking the talk. You don't move forward or evolve spiritually by going in a straight line. You do it in a circular fashion re-visiting, re-doing, and expanding upon each thing you do or have done in the steps. You are always expanding and changing or you stay right where you are. It is always your choice.

4. You must understand that no matter what you attempt your results will be limited or you will miss the spiritual component or you will be self defeating in some cases unless you relinquish your little ego self to that Higher Power whatever you may call It or however you may understand It. I think this is what Jesus meant about building your "house" on sand or building it on solid rock. You can build that house on sand that is try to do this without your Higher Power without Love and you will eventually fail. It will be all about YOU and the spiritual path, while certainly is about you, is more about your soul, your true being rather than the ego you that you have come to know as your self. That ego self you have constructed vies for the jockeying position against your soul which is your spiritual self.

We are a part of God as a drop of water is a part of the ocean. Soul knows that. Ego self sees the other drops as competition thinking that it can become the full ocean. The truth is it takes all drops to make the ocean and we are one in Higher Power/Great Mystery as the drops in the ocean are one in the Great Ocean. We have the same properties as the Ocean. Upon realizing that ego need not vie against anything and gladly relinquishes the jockeying position to soul, the true self.

5. You do not have to be ruled by your past deeds, efforts, and beliefs nor do you need to allow them to rule you nor allow them to fashion your newly chosen life path. Jesus also said you cannot put new wine in old wine skins. You can carry the skills and the lessons forward and desire that they be used to help reach your goal.

6. You must never think that you are finished for even if you should reach a point where your character has been tried in the fire and has made super human strides, there is always more to shed, more to discover, more to gain before your life is over.

7. What we focus on and what we believe is possible is what we draw into our lives. That idea is another whole essay, book, or chapter in itself. Suffice it to say, that if you see yourself becoming a more spiritual person and you keep your eyes focused on that rather than what appears to be you can relax, trust, believe, desire, and keep on keeping on. It is worth the effort and the wait I am sure. I have had glimpses of that and it spurs me on.

LIVING IN THE NOW: IS IT POSSIBLE? WHAT’S THE POINT?

My mind is like a slippery eel. When I try to stay focused right now, where I am experiencing what I am experiencing, my mind likes to slip off and cause me to chase down alleyways, byways, and other ways ending in a dead end street that takes me nowhere but to vicious cycles and I completely miss out on what is going on right this minute.

The dinner I was eating disappears without my tasting a thing because I was off in thoughts. The treasured moment with a loved one is lost to me forever because I missed being present. Or the beauty of a moment is crushed under the feet of galloping concerns and worries and the "what ifs" of tomorrow or the dust of yesterdays.

Have I built a life so far based on yesterdays? Probably I have for I brought with me my meanings of all of that. But are they not gone? As I build new meanings cannot I not be more aware of and choose to let go of past meanings? This is now and not yesterday. That is a fact hard to argue with but argue I do most times.

My tomorrows, are any promised to me for sure? How many will I have? Who really knows how many they will have? Yesterday I learned that a man 59 died suddenly and unexpectedly with a heart attack and two weeks ago a child of 15 died in a car wreck along with the grandparents in their 50s. Everything passes even the "bad" stuff.

One thing I can do is to show up for life. I can be present as much as possible. I can practice more meditating training my mind to focus and to be brought swiftly back to the moment when I stray. I can learn to give wings to plans knowing full well they are dependent upon so many things and that even I could change enough to desire something different than I first set my sights upon. I can watch my thoughts and beliefs and learn to shift them when I know they are leading me to places I don't want to go. And all the while I can embrace the moment with full awareness so that I can go with the flow of goodness, mercy, love, peace, joy and understanding freeing myself and others to be exactly what we are and who we are at that moment in the "now".

You would think that just showing up for life would be relatively simple and easy. Simple it is; easy it is not because we are not used to being so aware and so disciplined. Monkey mind, the committee, call it what you will, will vie for our attention and then try to absorb us so that we cannot be present. It very cleverly disguises itself as practicality and reality. For example it cause you to judge the moment based upon some experience you had years ago which does not now apply or it will tell you if you don't worry about what could happen, it will.

The truth is the past should no longer tell you how to choose now or how to act now or think now or believe now IF you don't think it serves you. The truth is that the more you worry about something happening, the more likely it will probably do just that for the more energy you give it, the more you attract the possibility of that experience to you. I didn't say you shouldn't think about what you would like to see in the future. You can do that and increase the possibility that you will draw that experience to yourself but you have to know that as you change, your circumstances change, and opposing thoughts horn in on your dream, that negation of that original idea may happen even without your being aware.

Trust that there is a Power greater than you are that is forever with you that creates everything. Your responsibility is to show up, be present, watch what you are thinking, focus on what you want rather than what you don't want, then release it to that Power knowing and believing the highest good is being carried out at all times so that you can be present in the "now" and enjoy and really live the life you have been given.

FORGIVENESS

I read a great article on forgiveness this morning. Nothing is a coincidence.

I often do not realize how I am still clinging to memories that cause me to react to events in my life the way I do when I know darn good and well that the present situation is only a trigger for something I am still clinging to or have a residue of and has nothing to do with the truth of the moment.

The "committee" convenes in my head and tells me stuff I know is not true. It is something I have told myself years ago about things that happened and this thing takes center front stage and screams so loudly that it drowns out all reasoning. Eventually I come to my senses but meanwhile I cause myself and sometimes other people a lot of unnecessary misery. I am thankful that this last incident created suffering mostly within me and did not affect anyone else so much.

So, even though I thought I had “forgiven” some of the people and incidences of my past, I found that there is still some residue left and if I want to be free of it enough to let me catch it before the committee can meet and throw me to the ground, I better wake up and smell the coffee and get on with forgiveness. It may be that what is left is to forgive myself for creating an image of those incidences that told me I was not loved, that I was only a nuisance and bother, that I was stupid, that I was unwanted, and that I caused the abuse. I told myself that if I could just behave, stay out of the way, be a “good girl”, give enough love, that all would be well.

The article focuses a little differently on forgiveness than my example but it did talk about how not forgiving can limit your blessings and can continue to create scenarios of like manner until you can forgive (not forget but forgive). I suspect that habit will try to drag you back even if you manage to forgive others or yourself but once it reaches the habit stage, you should be able to recognize it for what it is a bit sooner each time until perhaps you no longer give it power to disrupt your life not even for a short time and you will no longer feed it. It should eventually die of starvation but I haven’t quite been there yet so I can’t tell you from experience.

What often keeps us from forgiving is the fact that ego can tell you that you are completely justified in not doing so. So who are you hurting by holding onto that? Certainly not the others involved. They may be completely out of your life or have died. In the case of forgiveness of yourself, you have to be gentle with yourself and understand that you didn’t know any better. If you had, you would have done differently or processed things differently.

Being unforgiving is like trying to travel the road with baggage that slows you down and makes the trip a lot harder than it needs to be. It can cause illness as well.

Forgiving is not forgetting but it is being able to do what it takes to see that if you or others could have done differently at the time you or they would have. Forgiving is knowing that often what happens is triggered by ignorance passed down. Behaviors are often the outcome of self hatred that has been passed down from parent to child because no one woke up enough to break the chain. Chain breakers have an awesome responsibility but it is a privilege to be nominated for that purpose.

It may seem too little too late sometimes but we make amends and we do forgiveness and, trust me, it not only frees us but others whose lives we touch even if we messed up some along the way.

Click on the link below or copy and past in your URL window to read the article on forgiveness.

http://www.innerself.com/Behavior_Modification/Power_of_Forgiveness.htm

THE FIRST FLOWERS OF SPRING

The Daffodils in my yard are beginning to open their little yellow faces. Even as the temperatures tease with warm and then dip to freezing they seem unaffected with that fickleness and continue to bloom.

It is amazing how first the green shoots defy gravity, break through the harsh and hard ground that would keep them forever in the dark, and then reach toward heaven. Next the buds begin to develop. At first they don’t look like much, rather immature and ugly but as they begin to unfold and share their yellow glory one can only stand in awe of such perfection.

They are the first signs that break through the cold and dark winter bringing with them the promise of sun and warmth once again. The heart rejoices in that promise knowing full well that the cycle will start again and winter will again assert its rightful place in the pattern of things once the spring and summer are spent.

Those living in climates of little variation will not have the opportunity to note the signs that so well relate at times to our life’s journey. Nature invites us to stop and to observe and to take heart in the cycles that we will experience knowing that nothing lasts forever and yet everything regenerates anew.

Here’s to the flowers, to the promise, to the acceptance of all that is in God’s good time and in God’s good plan. Here’s to us who ride the waves of change and transition as we break free time and time again in the springtime of our journey.

Life is a constant celebration of love that propels us through all we encounter, causes the buds to blossom, and makes the journey sweet.

Dark Night of the Soul

I suppose there are periods in a person's life when as they develop or desire to develop further spiritually, that they find themselves in what St. John of the Cross called the "dark night of the soul".

I personally have reached at point where my soul is taking hold of me and causing me to revisit the call I heard so many years ago. I have some things to do: studying, praying, maybe some thinking, and surrendering to God and for the direction of good for my soul. I have reached an impasse, a rude awakening, a shaking up to the core that has caused me to sit up and take notice. I'm not sure what's up but I can recognize that there is another lesson or hurdle or stage or something that is coming up that right now that feels like the dark night but somehow will have at the finish what my soul has been directing me towards.

Every stage we go through, every major life change, offers an opportunity for reaching higher consciousness and drawing closer to our soul's purpose. Right now, it doesn't feel very good but after beseeching and knocking and asking at the door Jesus spoke of, I think the light will dawn. If it doesn’t then my goose is cooked. I don’t think God is about leaving us in ignorance and misery, even though earlier today I was ranting and raving at God for what I perceived as pulling the rug out from under me. God knows what an absolute pain in the butt I can be. Like a two-year old yelling “No!” at her parents. Who the heck do I think I am anyway? Good thing I have forgiveness for my emotional outbursts. :)

THE BEAUTY OF THE MOMENT

In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. -- Christopher Morley


I was reading a book and the sentence that struck me profoundly was one in which it talked about how we appreciate the pleasure of things that we have or experience but we don't necessarily appreciate the beauty of the moment. One way we can do that, I suspect, is to give thanks for it and mean it with all our hearts.

If I am witnessing a beautiful sunrise or sunset and it gives me pleasure that is wonderful but if I am completely and totally present with the experience in the moment and I sense the beauty of that moment by appreciating it through my gratitude I find that the degree of enjoyment and the fullness of that experience is expanded exponentially. I can express my thanks without directing it to my concept of God but most often I do. It is easier to do it that way but God to me is much, much more than any concept I can have of what God is or anyone else can have for that matter. God goes beyond name or concept. But we humans tend to need a point of reference and/or a point of direction for our thoughts and beliefs.

Treating each moment or experience with complete attention can only enhance it for my energy is single minded and keenly focused rather than scattered about giving attention to "monkey mind" or the "committee". I am thoroughly there. Words are not necessary when I am immersed in the "now" but often words of expression make there way from my mind to my mouth because it seems that these things cry for voice. Voice fails to describe the experience much like voice fails and words fail to adequately convey the experience of what we call God.

The beauty of the moment to me is the very essence of God. It is total and complete love. It is giving myself to that moment. Wallowing in the warm beauty of loving experience takes me way beyond the physical aspects of what it is I am seeing or experiencing and gives me glimpses of heaven.

The beauty of the moment takes me to heaven's door and invites me in. It fills my soul like nothing else can.