dailydatewithgod

In an information age where the amount seems to only increase over time, it is natural to feel overloaded.  Learning how to choose what we take in and to what degree is a choice we have. Often times we fear we may miss out if we are not in the know about it all.  The reality is we can never absorb it all.  God encourages us to determine what we need the gist of and what we need to know in-depth.  Our hearts play a role in this, it is not just a head game.  The truth of being a whole person is that we do not take in information just through our minds.  There are elements of energy not expressed in a literal sense occurring at all times. Developing an awareness of the gist of the energy we are interfacing with on a whole level gives us some guidance as to what we need to invest our focus and time into.  The closer we get to know the truth of who we are, the stronger gist of us we have and can choose what to get to know more about the outside world. There will always be something we are not getting.  Learning to notice what our hearts, mind, spirit, and soul need to be the best expression of ourselves is what God invites us to do.  There will be a lot of missteps and blunders along the way.  We will even miss out on some things.  Tuning in to the gist of our hearts by pausing with our breath, is the first step towards identifying where to place our focus. The heart which knows our resonance as the best version of ourselves has a leaning towards the gist of what it is to be the presence of light and love for which we are designed.  On my daily dates with God, I develop the musculature of my heart which keeps me in tune with the gist of who I am.  Then I can take that gist and use it to determine where to focus and how I can grow each day.

So much of what makes us up is the various automatic systems that enable us to get through the day without being present to it.  Our system is designed to keep surviving and there are networks and rules in place which allow this to happen so we need not focus on it.  It is such a beautiful design and the more scientists discover about how it works and all that is involved the more humbled we become. We realize that to duplicate ourselves we would need to know all the intricate rules which guide the network systems that govern how our bodies move, minds think, heart’s beat, and how they are all interconnected.  It is almost too much to fathom.  In addition to all the rules governing how are physical, emotional, and spiritual realities interact with each other there are the rules of society that govern how we as multidimensional systems interact with each other.  Is it any wonder there are bumps and bruises along the way.  Given how much mystery still exists regarding the rules that govern us from an internal perspective, there is bound to be more mystery about the rules which underlie how we interface with each other and the planet we inhabit. I need to take a breath just to wrap my head around it.  We hope to understand all the rules from a logical perspective, but given that we are not merely logical, it seems silly to think that is possible.  God invites us to embrace the rule of cooperation between the heart and mind as a mirror for how we can unpack the rules of our system and those with whom we interface.  Taking the time to know the rules of our own internal system as similar and distinct as it is from the other human beings on this planet is a step in the direction of cooperation.

In our search for a sense of certainty, we are continually seeking verification from the world.  When we feel chaotic and out of ease, we look for evidence in the world that either we are not the only ones or to find something that will provide what we need.  All the while our heart stands poised to provide the ease and rhythm of life we are seeking.  The moment we pause, connect to our breath, and open the energy of our hearts we create an avenue through which to access the thing we are seeking. We may find what we are looking for in the world outside of us through people, experiences, and ideas.  Yet, if it does not resonate within us it will be fleeting.  The poise of our hearts is what we use to get into a flow.  From this flow, we garner a different lens through which we see the world.  In turn, we are less thrown about but by the lack of poise in the world. We can face the challenges of the world by leaning on the poise of the heart to be our steady way to ride the waves. On my daily dates with God, it always begins with the breath which initiates me into a relationship with my heart.  The relationship over time has brought about a knowing of the poise in my heart which I can return to at any moment when my world seems unstable. The experience of disease, uncertainty, and chaos turns out to be an opportunity to practice returning to the poise of my heart. It is a continual practice.

We become habituated to a particular style of living.  It happens within a culture, a time period, and ourselves.  We develop a way of relating to those around us based on a particular custom and do so because it is accepted practice.  When we witness the customs of other families, time periods, cultures, or individuals we are often perplexed. We use the mind of our own custom to interpret what we are seeing.  Many things get lost in translation.  There are even customs of our minds and hearts that seem to operate in opposition to each other.  Creating a custom of how we relate to our own inner reality between the mind and the heart goes a long way to relating to the outside world.  So much of what we view as being perplexing or annoying about others is merely signifying the level of internal perplexity and annoyance.  God encourages us to find a custom of communication and space for our minds and hearts to work in unison.  Through it, we are better able to make room for the eyes of our hearts to shed a light on the perspective of what we are seeing outside of us with our eyes.

It is hard to see the storm clouds when the rain is pouring down on you.  It is challenging to remember how strong we are when all we feel is weak and hopeless.  It is easy to forget that the sun is still shinning when the clouds hamper our view of the sky.  We get focused on our most immediate reality and understandably so.  We have the capacity to experience life on so many levels.  It can be overwhelming to balance the reality of all there is at any given moment.  No wonder we choose to check out sometimes. Being alive is no small feat.  I believe even the statistics of being born are still miraculous but I can’t provide you the numbers at the moment.  I do know that so far there have been many ways that I have attempted to push away life but thankfully I am not successful.  It is synonymous with the idea stated by the character Pearly Somes ( a servant of Lucifer) in the movie A Winter’s Tale:  “I’ll tell you something that should chill your blood. No matter how far we tip the scales our way, no matter how many of them we turn dark, nothin’ seems to break their capacity for hope. They pass it back and forth like the flu at a preschool fair. We’re losing, Lucifer. One bright star at a time, we’re losing.”  When we listen to the quiet voice of our hearts we find the call to venture on life.  It is a venture that requires courage, hope, and light. Our hearts have all the tools we need and they seem to be working in us even when we are not aware of them. As we become come to know the truth of who we are, we learn to utilize the built-in tools to answer the call to venture on life, our life. Just because we can’t see ourselves as the bright and courageous stars we are, doesn’t mean our next breath isn’t infusing and circling hope within. Maybe by our remembering what our hearts are truly made of we will infect those around us.

We seem to stand in contradiction to ourselves a lot. Perhaps it is the dual nature of the universe in which we live or the way we are not capable of understanding the denial we are in when we are in it. We vacillate between wanting our privacy to screaming at the top of our lungs that we need to be heard.  We anonymously hide behind names and organizations with some sort of groupthink while begrudging them for not having more of our individual interests in mind. We are like vessels that leak their true intentions while behaving and thinking in a completely opposite manner.  It is mind-boggling how we manage to create peace among each other with all the leaking going on.  God invites us to know the truth of our own hearts and seek peace with our duality.  By accepting the various and ever-changing nature of our existence within ourselves we find peace.  When we learn to make peace with the whole of who we are body and mind we are less in need of seeking it outside of ourselves.  We develop compassion for the leaks from others that make them seem like hypocrites.  We learn our of our fragile nature when we carry the expectations of others and ourselves.  All the ways we witness the leak stemming from the duality of life remind us to not take it personally.  Of all the tools I learned and aim to live in recovery strengthened on my daily dates with God, not taking myself so seriously is a gem.  Life is full of duality and there will be leaks even when we are certain its a sealed and secure.  A river does not leak from the mountain, it flows.  The waves do not leak onto the shore they share their gift of rhythm with the sand.  The leaks of our lives and invitations to notice the air leaking in and out of us all day long as a way to return to the heart of who we are.

We often do not realize the ramifications of an event until long after it has happened.  Given our proclivity to be meaning-making machines we take incidents and create stories around them.  We feel better and more at ease when things make sense.  It can feel almost painful like a headache when we can’t wrap our minds around something or someone.  While it may put our minds at ease to design meaning around something there can be additional ramifications for the meaning we create.  The ramifications fall on all ends of the spectrum and we can make even more meaning out of how we interpret the ramifications.  Our mind just keeps going and going.  It is quite marvelous.  Sometimes in the mix, however, an incident gets laid on our hearts.  The work of coming to terms with the ramifications then needs to be done with the heart as well as the mind.  We are whole beings so the idea that we can handle everything between our ears denies the fact that we are not only alive between our ears.  Yet, I am many times guilty of assuring myself that I can think my way of out of something that requires a bit more in-depth work.  My resistance is often around feelings because they are so fluid and have no set trajectory. Plus, I learned as a child that only certain ones were permissible. God has shown me on our daily dates that incidents of the heart are best faced with the breath.  By opening myself up to the power of the heart to courageously walk me through whatever is lying on the other side of the incident, I can walk the path with curiosity.  God invites us all to become curious about the incidents on our hearts that are calling to us to learn more about the power of love in our own lives, no matter what story our mind tells us about their meaning.

Looking at the landscape of our lives we are better able to get a grasp on the full story of what is happening. From the panoramic view, there is a much wider perspective to take in. Our minds have the brilliant capacity to focus in on things and solve problems.  We can gear our attention and focus in such a way that we do not get distracted.  This is a valuable skill in a world that is constantly trying to find ways to distract us. God invites us to put equal value on the panorama of our hearts. When we pause and take a deep breath.  One that goes through the top part of the lungs and reaches the diaphragm we not only approach the widest part of our lung capacity but we widen the lens of our eyes.  The panorama provided allows us to take the long view of how our lives are unfolding.  When we are fixated and stressed, our breathing is shallow.  We have a hard time seeing past our own nose.  By following the inclination of the heart to see the panorama of existence, even if for just a moment, we can return to our focused view with new eyes. I was driving along the California coast the other day and it was as though I heard God saying, “look up and out”.  Just adjusting my view to look beyond the cars in front of me my eyes rested on the panorama of beauty around me.  Taking the moment to step into that panorama I felt myself take a deep breath. In that instant, my eyes were what opened me to breathe deeper.  I am not sure how or why but I found myself less stressed or irritated by the line of cars on the road to head back over the mountains.  I don’t even remember how long we were stopped.  The panorama of the heart opened up a softens that blew away the frustration with my breath.

As human beings, there are many things we can learn about ourselves from those who take the time to understand the subtler nuances of how we operate.  Whether they are scientific, physical, psychological, spiritual, or metaphysical they provide us with knowledge based on experimentation or experience of the standard human operating system.  As beings who are continually growing it is helpful to listen to those who spend time, more than one person alone could in all of these areas.  God invites us to take what we learn and determine for ourselves which is a fit. While we are more similar than not, we are each a valued and unique expression of a human being.  We can take what we learn and be inventive about how that is present in our lives.  We benefit by using the knowledge given and designing inventive ways to make use of it enables us to be the best version of ourselves.  Our inventive ways may be the same as others or they may be very different because we are incorporating the energy of our own hearts into the mix. We design an inventive way of taking what is outside us and integrating it within our being so it becomes the expression of love we are designed to be.  We become the carriers of the knowledge of ourselves and how it is best expressed for ourselves and the world outside of ourselves.

With the speed of information in the world, it is challenging to get a sense of what is going to become widely adopted in our culture versus popular for the moment. When it comes to incorporating information and discerning for ourselves if it is a fit for us, it is easy to get caught up in trends.  Learning to distinguish between the trends and the mainstays is about knowing the prevalence of energy within our own being. Choosing to incorporate a prevalent trend is about whether it matches the prevalence of who we are growing ourselves to be.  It is not about acceptance or denial.  It is about paying attention to the resonance of the trend as well as what is presented at face value.  God invites me often to listen and pay attention to what is being shown in the world as prevalent and just notice within myself what deserves my attention.  When we know the prevalence of who we are being, we can know how to approach the latest thing and determine if it is a good match for us or not.