dailydatewithgod

Most of the time we are completely unaware of the thoughts roaming around in our head.  We have gotten so used to them we do not realize they are often the same ones just repeating themselves.  They are wandering around rent-free in our heads.  Many of them did not originate with us. The roaming thoughts come from people or experiences outside of ourselves that we adopted.  Somehow they made sense or we simply did not have an alternative. Many of the roaming thoughts began their rent-free experience in our minds before we had any other options.  We spend the first several years of our life on record.  We watch and see how those around us act and speak and we adopt it as a way of being and thinking for ourselves.  It is only upon the age of seven, referred to as the age of reason, that we stop to perhaps question or allow additional experiences to hold space along with the thoughts we already have.  The hardest concept for us to grasp is that we are not our thoughts.  Yes, we are having them and some we cannot seem to keep from having, but have you ever stopped yourself to ask, who is the one with the thoughts?  Given that with some distance we can see them happening one after another after another, are we the ones observing or the one who is roaming?  Maybe instead of allowing the thoughts to roam inside our heads rent-free we can question them and take a closer look.  We can start charging them so to speak instead of allowing them to live rent-free.  Obviously, some are helpful but most need at least to be evaluated to determine if they are useful in the present context.  The thoughts starting roaming in our heads long before we knew we could choose whether or not to identify with them.  The first step is to notice without judgment the roaming thought.  The next is to use the wisdom of our hearts which has some distance and knows the deeper truth of who we really are.  We can check in with our hearts when we see one of the roaming thoughts.  Pause, take a breath, let the thought roam through our mind while we place our hands on our hearts to see how it feels.  The prospect of doing this with all our roaming thoughts is overwhelming.  Deep down, we know which ones to start with.  The roaming thoughts which popped your mind as you started reading this blog is a good place to begin.

We all know what we are drawn to. It happens automatically.  Something or someone possesses a magnetism drawing us in.  Whether it is a topic, experience, or a person there is a part of us that wants to be closer to the magnet.  We may react to it with envy or jealousy.  We may try really hard to repel ourselves from it.  However, when we come in contact with the magnetism there is a part of us that feels connected. We mistakenly think it is the idea, the person or the experience.  It is actually the feeling and the sense of ourselves which become magnetized.  Paying attention to what magnets are captivating us gives us an insight into ourselves.  In some cases, it will reveal a darker side of who we are and do not want to see.  In other cases, it will highlight something in us we were not aware of and want to explore further.  It is less about the content of the magnet and more about the deeper sense of what the magnet stands for and opens up within us.  In the moments of a magnetizing experience, it is good to connect with our hearts so we can find out what the magnetic element is showing us about ourselves.  If we get stuck in what our reaction or what the magnet looks like or consists of we can be thrown off course.  The magnet serves as a message from something within us wanting to be seen and explored.  When we connect within we become aware of the vibration being created inside of us by the magnet.   It is an open invitation from life to get to know ourselves a bit more.

We recognize a physical bruise when we see it. It causes our skin to change color because the blood rushes to the surface because of a strike or some kind of pressure.   Immediately upon injury, our body’s systems step in to remedy the situation.  To deal with the impact of the pressure the body knows it needs to create a protective coating to make sure healing can take place.  It doesn’t always look nice but we are designed to create space for our own healing.  The same thing is within our capacity when it comes to other kinds of bruises.  The difference is we do not see something showing up physically, at least not right away.  We may tense our muscles or find ourselves looking for a mental distraction, but It requires us to stop and notice how we are feeling.  TWe can ask ourselves, in the moment of the bruising what was our experience of ourselves.? What words came to mind about who we are and what we are capable of?  We have grown deaf to our inner dialogue and honestly, would not talk to others the way we talk to ourselves. Instead of using our internal resources to provide the healing needed for the bruise we create more bruising.  God invites us to look at how we can connect to the courage and energy of our hearts to open up a space for healing. The same heart that pumps the needed blood to the physically bruised area also drives the healing of an emotional bruise.  It begins with the breath.  When we are bruised we want it to go away and not have to deal with it.  We perceive making space for the feelings that come up as potentially more pain. When we invite ourselves to take the pause allotted with breath it allows some new insight into how we can approach the needed healing of the bruise.  The breath engages the heart which holds the wisdom of the truth of who we are and what we need to keep going.  Bruises emotional or physical are not fun but when we are open to thinking of them as a chance to reconnect to our own power of healing and growing in love we see more of what we are truly made of.

Have you ever felt like there was a battle going on inside your head?  All these thoughts running around like a bunch of kids on a baseball field who don’t agree on the different calls from each team about who is safe and who wins and if they are playing right.  In those moments we need a neutral party to intervene.  I like to refer to this as the umpiring role of my heart.  Especially when the banter back and forth gets heated I need an umpire with enough courage, strength, and power to get my mind to a place of being open again.  In those moments of stress stemming from over-analyzing a situation, it can seem unimaginable that there would be a way to break away and make room for something else.  The breath becomes a handy option as it is going to be happening over and over.  I can latch on to it when prompted by my body to take a breath by placing my hand on my heart.  My heart then has a moment to connect in and provide the necessary umpiring to help me resolve the analysis paralysis.  I am so certain that if I think about something more and with a greater effort I can wrangle all those thoughts into some sort of cohesive experience.  Rarely does it actually work.  If I remember those thoughts are like the kids on the baseball field I can remember to invite in the kind umpire of the heart to do his or her work. The heart umpire provides some clarity.  It reminds me of the true rules, the ones keeping me connected to the truth of who I am and who I am called to be in the world. From there I can make choices from all these thoughts about the next best course of action.  It doesn’t mean I will do it perfectly as it is not even about perfection. It means at the moment I am in all of me is in the game of life and its choices.

We do a lot of idolizing and cherishing things and people outside of ourselves.  It makes sense as children there is so much with which we experience awe.  Everything is new and fascinating.  As we get used to things they lose their shine.  We see no point in venerating them anymore because why would we cherish something or someone we take for granted?  This experience is not just with elements outside of ourselves. When did we stop venerating the inner experience of ourselves?  When did we decide we could take for granted our ability to think and breathe?  When did we choose to rely on without regarding the amazingness of our capacity to move and create a connection with others?  When we stop to think about what it is we are no longer venerating the list is long.  Somehow we correlate only newness with worthy to be venerated.  God invites us to see as God sees.  Every moment of breath is a new moment.  In the presence of this moment, we can be venerating many things.  Just because we interacted with this person yesterday does not mean something new has not occurred within them worthy of venerating.  Just because we made it to work in one piece without any accidents yesterday doesn’t mean we cannot venerate the systems of transportation, paved roads, or conscientiousness of other drivers.  Venerating may sound like something only applicable to that which has throughout history been venerated.  Today we live in a time of greater awareness.  There is no reason our gratitude list cannot become our venerating list.

Sometimes we get stuck in thinking we have nothing to offer.  We lose touch with the sacred truth of who we are and that we cannot help but radiate that in the world.  We can’t see our own light so we doubt it’s existence.  Sometimes when we cannot see it, others will notice the flickers inside of us.  We know they see something because they treat us kinder than we treat ourselves.  Often we are so busy looking at ourselves with the eyes of our head, we forget to look with the eyes of our hearts.  Heart speaks to the heart and when we take time to turn inward and connect to our heart despite what our head tells us, we find the flickers.  It may be momentary but if we look close enough we will encounter the flickers. They are the existence of God within us.  No matter how dark and dreary our experience of life is we cannot erase God from our blueprint.  Like all great designers who create, they leave part of themselves within each of their creations.  When I get stuck in fear or reverse pride I reach for the hand of God and ask to see the flicker of truth within me. God, show me my design.  God, guide me back to the flicker of light you have growing within me so I can disconnect from the flights of fear going through my mind.

When looking at the whole of a human being there are many parts involved in the completion of the whole.  Who we are is not just our words, our bodies, our sounds, our thoughts, our actions, our intentions, or our choices.  We are the rare combination of all those things, each of their various attributes, and more.  When we find ourselves inclined to judge ourselves or others, we might want to stop and ask which attributes are in judgment?  If we have a positive attribute coming from our heart’s intention but a negative attribute of action, which one do we say is the truth of who we are?  Maybe it is based on the circumstance.  Maybe the attributes of our decisions are based on false information or a closed heart.  Maybe the attributes of success that we show in our business are not the same attributes we can use to apply to our most intimate relationships.  Maybe we are attributing an invalid meaning to a particular attribute because the context has changed. If that is the case, which attributes are good and which are bad?  Is that even the right question?  Perhaps it is less about the judgments of good and bad and more about which attributes are working towards our growth in love.  We have all experienced times when living from a negative attribute culminated in the development of a positive attribute.  To what do we attribute the change? Did the change come from the movement of our hearts or our minds or both?  Did the change come from the intervention of another human being or from coming face to face with the truth of who we are?  With all the different attributes involved in the movement of life, it is hard to know to what do we attribute the movement.  Coming from the premise of what is working versus what attributes are not working leaves more space for all those attributes to emerge and be changed or adjusted to fuel our growth.  We will never have all the perfect attributes and we will never be able to always attribute good and bad to each one.  We can, however, pay attention to and learn from the attributes working towards our growth in love one moment at a time.

I think I learned more about how to speak Spanish from watching Spanish speaking soap operas than I did in my class in school.  The dramatic nature of the images allowed me to get a sense of what was being communicated verbally.  The images and interactions were so over the top you couldn’t help but pick up on what the actors were attempting to depict through language.  It was written on their faces.  Have you ever wondered what your life would depict if it was a silent film?  It sounds kind of funny.  The reality is despite our astute language skills we convey much more through our actions and energy.  The depiction of what is important to us is seen in what we do and what we spend our time on.  The depiction of who matters to us would be measured by our level of attention when with them.  Our interactions would depict whether or not we were listening, looking them in the eye, and if the energy flowing back and forth between us.  Our actions coupled with body language and facial expressions depict how we really feel about a situation regardless of what we are saying.  We do not give it much thought because specific words are easier to pinpoint.  Yet we have all walked into a room and known immediately whether the space in the room is the depiction of an okay or not okay place to be.  Our intention and attention have much more to do with what is depicted in any given situation about the status of our hearts and minds than anything we say.  If we start off by connecting with what is true for us at our core, we do not need to wonder about what is depicted by us in a given situation.

Have you ever noticed that in one context something seems pleasant and in another context it does not?  When we drop things it is not good.  When we feel drops of rain it can be either depending on how much you like rain.  When we drop information it is seen as helpful.  When we drop hints it can be frustrating or helpful depending on whether or not we wanted more than just hints. What we encounter is not the words themselves but the meaning we place on them.  Context is operating within the meaning.  So much communication gets messed up between individuals because they are operating from different contexts.  There are also layers of context.  There is individual, familial, societal, and the specific setting and situation. The good news is we can clear the air when it is muddled by context by providing it to each other instead of assuming it is the same for everyone. Context is not intended to make communication difficult. It is intended to be able to engage in the world in such a way that it does not require a constant explanation for everything.  Yet how many of us are operating from a context we neither remember learning or chose to follow?  When we interact with others who are coming from a different context, we can either be frustrated or see it as an opportunity to clarify our own context for ourselves.  We think it is their problem that they do not understand our context, but maybe it is ours and we don’t know it yet. Each interaction of frustration can be an opportunity and a gift even if it looks like it might be painful.  Another and seemingly easier option is to make the other wrong and ourselves right. When we do that we rob ourselves of the chance to get clear about our own contexts and learn about how we see things. God did not provide us this world with so many varieties of people and their contexts because God wanted us to be frustrated by what it takes to interact with one another.  God’s invitation is always about learning and growing our capacity to recognize the face of love no matter the context.  Then again, that is just part of how my daily dates with God have changed my context for love.

I marvel at the way sound works.  I can imagine what it must be like to be a musician who creates a conglomeration of sounds into a pattern that carries a message.  The reality is vibration is something in and around us all the time.  Perhaps because sound travels in waves it has a mesmerizing quality.  Whether it is the sound of a musical melody, the reverberation of the phone buzzing, the rhythmic cadence of a poem or how we are moved from within when we hear the sound of our own name, all these elements of sound have an ethereal quality.  What is it exactly about how sound connects to us that makes it sometimes seem magical?  Is it in the surprise created from not being able to see the waves before they reach us? Is it how we can find ourselves moving along with the resonance of the waves and catch ourselves moving without intending it?  Maybe it is less about knowing why and choosing to join in the mystery and be a part of the surprise.  Years ago there was this show called STOMP.  It was the performance of a percussion group who as street performers invited people to stop, listen and watch.  It stemmed from a practice dating back to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance all about how we could find music in the sounds of the ordinary. If we listen very closely we can hear the vibrations in our own bodies.  Babies are drawn to simple rhythmic beats because they remind them of the sound of their mother’s heart when they were in her womb. We think we outgrow this until we learn what it is like to connect to the sound of our own heart.  On my daily date with God, I start off by placing my hand over my heart and connecting to the current of my own vibrations.  It is also where I can go at any time during the day to center myself.   The sound of our hearts beating is the calling card of our soul to go within and remember where life is flowing to and from all day and all night. Reconnecting to this source of life vibrating within us reminds us we have what we need when the waves and experiences of life outside of ourselves seem vigilant about throwing us out of rhythm.  Sound is the gateway to find our core.