dailydatewithgod

When we think of mediation we imagine a coming between opposing people or opposing ideas.  We think of it as a way of finding a middle ground or a compromise.  What would happen if we begin intervening with our own thoughts?  What kind of internal peace could we create be intervening between our thoughts and our beliefs?  Unfortunately, all of us at some point fall prey to believing in things just because we think them.  We do not intervene and ask questions of our own thoughts?  It is labeled as crazy or strange to talk to oneself.  How much more crazy is that than believing everything we think is true.  How much more crazy is it to believe that our perspective is always the right one?  If we start intervening between the thought and the action we gain a level of self-mastery.  We think many things all day long and if we stop attaching to all of them, we can begin to open our eyes to see and experience things from different directions.  Intervening is a powerful tool to keep us from always following the thoughts that might lead us down a path we do not wish to go on.  The power of intervening by taking a breath after a though reaches our conscious mind is all we need.  From there we can make a conscious choice of where to go.  The good news and the bad news is most of our thoughts do not register consciously.  We recognize the ones they do because we attach energy to them.  We call them feelings.  These feelings feed into the thoughts like giving them juice and we are off to the races.  Intervening by breathing allows us to step back and even ask ourselves, who is thinking this thought?  It may sound all woo-woo, but sometimes a little woo-woo is what we need to shake ourselves out of the automatic loops of thoughts.  Intervening gives the opportunity for our hearts to step in and play a role as well.  From there we can reconnect to the truth of who we are. We can invite the mind to pause before taking action and regain a little bit of self-possession.

We like to think we know people better than we do.  The reality is much of what experience as knowledge of others tells us more about ourselves.  Given that every expression, every word, every action, every interaction with have with others is filtered through our understanding of life, most of what we think is knowledge of them is our version of them.  It may sound funny, but think about how many different opinions exist about people in the public sphere.  Some people can’t stand this person, other people love them.  Can we all be right or wrong?  How others express themselves tells us something about them but the meaning we attach to those expressions are what we believe is our knowledge of them.  The even funnier part of life is others often know more about our expressions than we do.  There are things we do so automatically we are not conscious of them.  It is done by body memory.  We can start to know ourselves by paying attention to our own expressions.  Reflecting on what we did when something happened or we encountered our experience of others.  It requires a slowing down to pay attention to what we are expressing.  Often we do not really pay attention to the words that come out of our mouths, let alone whether or not our body language matches the words we are using.  Why do this?  Why would we want to focus on our expressions?  God designed us each at our core to be an expression of love. None of us really know how to do that, but it is what drives us.  Our lack of knowledge and understanding of the true nature of love leaves us to make ill-fated attempts at expression. What comes out may seem completely contrary to the very idea of love.  Taking the time to get to know the inner workings of the core of who we are is how we begin to notice what kind of expressions we are capable of.  It is not about meeting some moral standards or the approval of others.  It is about living the truth of who we are created to be.  Getting to know our expressions and learning how to make them come from both our mind and our heart in alignment allows us to feel and be alive. Isn’t that why we are here?

When we get weighed down by the everyday little things of life it is hard to remember to wonder.  Our breath provides us a quick reminder to stop and take it in and let it out over and over throughout the day.  Have we lost the connection to our phenomenon?  Have we forgotten where we come from or how we were created?  Of course, we have. It happens. Why do you think we have to breathe so often each day?  Each breath is an opportunity to step back into the awareness of our phenomenal nature.  When we spend time in nature or just even glance at the majesty of the ocean, the peaks of the mountain, the colors of the butterfly, or how the wind moves the clouds, we step into the phenomenon of creation.  In that moment of breath’s invitation to pause, we have access yet again to the still place within us which remembers we too were created the same way.  We get lost in our outside coverings and the labels our brain places on ourselves and others.  But in the moment of recognition of truth, we can marvel at the phenomenon we are.  God would not take great care in designing the grooves on a leaf but then leave a part of us less than as intricately wondrous.  Just because we cannot see what God sees or know the heart of God at the moment of our creation, does not mean we are not the phenomenon of God. The eyes of our mind only tell us part of the story.  I do not see the roots of the tree in my front yard but I know they are there.  It would not be able to stand tall and spread its branches without falling over. It would not keep growing if it was not getting nutrients from the soil and its connection to other trees. We are rooted in the phenomenal nature of God and our phenomenons ourselves.  We are created to serve as living breathing evidence of the love from which we were created.  We would not be able to grow in love as a standing reminder of the power of love no matter what we experience in this life if we were not rooted in the phenomenon of God’s love.

Do you ever get a tingly sensation when you hear someone say something which has a deep resonance for you?  Have you ever notice when someone bristles at something you say? Both of these experiences of prickles are at their essence sensations.  We are the ones who label them good or bad.  When we find ourselves encountering prickles whether they are situations, ideas, words, people, or memories, they are not inherently positive or negative. Sensations are neutral.  Our interpretation of them is what provides the context.  The meaning we place on them speaks to our state of mind at the moment we are experiencing them.   Recognizing our prickles are contextual and based on our meaning we see the power of our choice.  If prickle (whether an idea, an experience, a person, or thought in our mind) is felt as chilling or spiky we can step away from blaming the prickle and look at what meaning we are attaching.  We are no longer at the whims of the prickles in our lives because those sensations hold only the value we place upon them.  We are freer than we perceive ourselves to be.  I am not saying it is easy to let go of believing it is the prickle causing the distress and anger or even the joy and elation, but it is truer than the idea that we are victims of sensations. We cannot change the prickles but we can be open to creating new meanings.  The simple prayer I say often holds great power for me, “God, how do you see this?”  It is the gateway to tilting the perspective from the eyes of my mind to the eyes of my heart.

It is easy to focus on where things are missing.  Perhaps it is the inclination to view the glass as either half-full or half-empty.  Has anyone noticed the glass is both half full and half empty?  Focusing on the gaps in our lives is not so we can wallow in them or start a pity party.  To be able to see them we can recognize them and our perspective of them as part of ourselves.  The more we are willing to look at all areas of our life the more we can know what we are working with to construct a life.  In the same way, there are moments when it is best to let our hearts be the stronger impetus behind our decisions and moments when it is best to let our minds be the stronger impetus it is good to focus on our gaps.  When we know where the loopholes are we can see how they make up the tapestry of our experience. If we try and hide them by pulling the rug over them, we will fall through when we walk across the part of the floor with the gap underneath we cannot see.  If we are willing to look with the eyes of our heart upon the gaps in our lives we will grow in love for them, ourselves and all those around us who have their gaps too.  We can work together to fill in each other’s gaps and show each other how we learn to live with the ones that don’t seem to be fixable.

When it comes to nourishment, we think mostly about physical nutrition. What is the sustenance needed to keep us going from one day to the next? There are also elements of nourishment for our hearts, minds, and spirits.  Knowledge is nourishment for our minds. So is quiet.  The nourishment of our heart is a connection to ourselves and others.  Nourishment of our spirit is everything from acknowledging our role in the greater experience of life and a deep knowing we are more than our physical experience. For each of us, there are different elements which create the levels of nourishment needed on any given day.  What may be nourishment to one person is poison to another.  However, just as in nutrition for our bodies, there are some similarities.  Just like water seems to be an essential part of physical nourishment for everyone we all share similarities as to what nourishes our hearts.  Those are the places we can connect with others.  The common elements of nourishment of our hearts are what unite us.  When we develop and focus on those there is less reason for strife with others.  If we do our part in providing ourselves with the nourishment we need to sustain our hearts, minds, and spirits we do not depend on others to do so for us.  Others can be an integral part of it but in the same way, they cannot be the water we need, we cannot expect them to be the source of our nourishment.  For me, my daily date with God is an essential part of the nourishment of my mind, heart, and spirit.  Our committed time together grounds me and provides the nourishment needed to move through the moments in my life as fully as I can.  It may not be what I expect and I may encounter experiences I do not want, but I have the nourishment I need to face whatever happens.

We have conceded the idea that in order to grow as a human being we need to be learning.  We make room for it with children or when acquiring a new skill in adulthood.  We allow it in classrooms and discussions.  Life is busy teaching us the design of love and how it works all along the way.  When we open our eyes to the teachings of love we realize we can learn it from everyone and everything.  At any interval, we can ask ourselves: What am I learning about love in this situation?  Where is the presence of love in this person?  How do I accept myself when all I feel is pain and contempt for the circumstances I am in?  How could I possibly bring love into this relationship, job, circumstance, and so on?  All of our moments from breath to breath are life teaching us about the capacity and diversity of love.  We are designed to grow in learning about love so if it were to only take place in a given experience with certain people (i.e. a house of worship, a specific book, or a spiritual medium) we would be very limited. God is not limited, therefore God’s teachings on love are found in every crook and cranny of the universe.  Our job is to open our eyes to see and feel how we are being taught of love.  Often it is the least likely person, place or thing we would imagine teaching us anything about love which moves our hearts the most. It is the walking through recovering from childhood incest, working with challenging personalities at work, the desire to find a place of peace and freedom in my own body which I vilified for many years and seeking reconciliation for long wounded relationships where I have found my teachings on love which reached me deep within.

Life provides all kinds of indications.  We get them through our experience, our feelings, other people, all our senses.  Some of them speak louder than others with words or not. The ones which find a connection within ourselves are the ones we want to pay close attention to.  It may sound strange to ask what my pain is suggesting or what my frustration is suggesting.  How about what our laughter or delight is suggesting?  How we relate to our experience tells us something about how we are interpreting our lives.  We can use them as the suggestions they are to take a deeper look.  Things are rarely what they seem.  At least for me, it is not the face value which causes the pain or pleasure I sense in my heart.  It is what I think it is suggesting about me or my experience.  Being open to other suggestions is what I rely upon God for.  God, help me to see this as you see this?  What is this experience suggesting to me about who I am being or not being?  How might I learn from the suggestion of this experience about love today? I know deep down we are all here to grow into the love from which we were created.  It is our ideas about what is happening that typically prevent us from listening to the suggestions of life guiding us to remember who we truly are.

Sometimes we just need a break.  Life is a mess.  We have things coming at us all day long and we manage most of them automatically and are therefore unaware of the true volume.  We do not notice how much we need an interlude until we give ourselves one.  Just a moment to stop and take a look at where we are and who we are being.  A moment to treasure the gift of being alive. We tell ourselves we will do it when we retire but that could be a long waiting time.  We do not even know if we will make it to retirement.    An interlude during which we are one with our breath is provided for us a multitude of times in an hour, in a day.  Did we even stop to wonder why it is we have to breathe in and out so often?  Maybe we are designed this way to provide automatic interludes as we experience life.  Perhaps God knew life would be such an abundant experience for which we would have untold curiosity and desire to be in, we would need a reminder to take an interlude and let it soak in.  Having an interlude is not because we can’t handle more but because we want to be more alive and present for the fullness of life.  Surrendering ourselves to the inherent reminder to create breathing space allows us to have more of the experience we are in.  Letting go into the flow of life by taking the interlude designed in our system, is our thank you to the gift of the life for which we are present.  Not taking advantage of an interlude is like saying you are breathing by only inhaling.  We need both the inhale and the exhale to keep existing.

Our minds are creative, imaginative, and an endless source of stories. Especially when it comes to narrating the whys.  My mind can spend endless hours constructing a story about why something that does not make sense occurred.  It designed narratives of motivation, suspicion, potential reasons to hope or to despair, and I sometimes think I could be a screenwriter with the story behind the why.  It is a gift to have such creativity and an extension of who we are at our core.  However, by the time my mind is done constructing the story behind why there is little evidence to back it up.  The fearful element wants to know all the details so it can solve the puzzle.  With the mind’s inclination to survive any possible dangers it conjures up multiple potentials of dangers to watch out for going forward.  Sometimes we don’t know why things happen. Sometimes there isn’t a reason.  Sometimes things happen.  As the author and spiritual teacher, Michael Singer wrote, “you can think about it all you want, but life is still going to keep on happening.”  There will always be a why we cannot solve.  The evidence we are truly seeking is the knowledge we are okay.  We think if we can solve the mysterious why we can guard ourselves against the bad.  Yet is it the mind or our heart that is telling us the story of something being bad or good?  When we drop into our hearts we reconnect with the inner knowing of who we are at our core and how we cannot be undone by life’s happening.  It is the only evidence we need to take one more breath.