dailydatewithgod

The delicate nature of creation speaks to the precious nature of the Creator of all.  Knowing we come from this source makes sense as to why we are drawn to experiences of elegance.  Often times people cast the idea of elegance with extravagance or excess.  Yet what could be more elegant than the way the a child sleeps peacefully in your arms or watching a tree sway in the wind?  It is the seemingly simplistic minute experiences of joy for which we are not the cause.  It is a knowing of grace which comes straight from the power of love.  It is something our hearts know and the time we take to get to know the truth of what is in our hearts, the more we will see evidence of elegance in our everyday lives.  God encourages us to see within ourselves the elegance God’s sees and knows with certainty existing within us.  Getting quiet and following the light of hope and still power of the heart opens our experience to know elegance in whatever moment we are in.

Sometimes when we find ourselves in situations where we do not know what to do, so we shy away from being present.  We think our presence is somehow not needed.  We believe it is random that we are where we find ourselves.  These days we get on our phones instead of risking engaging with others. We are just in the elevator after all. We think there is no point because we are just moving through. What if we are exactly where we are supposed to be at all times?  What if we are designed to be the amelioration needed in a given circumstance?  We think if we do not bring something grand and noticeable to an experience it is pointless. Through the gift of ourselves we can be the amelioration of being alone in this world.  Your smile could alleviate someone’s pain.  Looking someone in the eye could be the amelioration of the other person feeling unseen.  Stopping to hear the answer when you ask someone how they are is the amelioration of knowing their voice matters.  There are so many ways we can ameliorate the presence of darkness in one’s life by simply showing up, being present, and participating.  God invites us to play a role in ameliorating the idea that anyone is of any less value than anyone else.  We all matter and when we take a small step to ameliorate the idea that we do not matter we are the face and presence of love in the moment.

If we are not aware we are not aware. It may seem like a highly simplistic statement but it is reminder of how much we assume about awareness.  We think that if others recognized what is happening, what they are doing, or how they are behaving, they would make changes.  This implies a level of recognition that is not present.  All of us at any given moment in time are not able to be in full recognition of our experience.  If we were, our heads would explode.  There are so many things happening on so many different levels and our brains and bodies work in collaboration to keep at the forefront the recognition of what will insure our survival.  We take for granted that because we are able to recognize something, others recognize it too.  This is where many conflict arise.  We take it personally that someone cannot see it from our perspective or be aware of the same things of which we are aware.  Maybe it is not the time or the place for anyone but us to have recognition.  Maybe there is nothing wrong with someone else having an awareness we do not have.  Maybe we are meant to be in relationship so we can provide the fullest recognition of the experience possible.  Maybe our hearts are what drive us to connect with others because they know to support the survival being worked on by our mind and body needs to connect with a fuller awareness of reality in order to really survive.  God invites us to expand our recognition of life in the moment we are in by engaging our heart.  Our heart prompts us to pause and take a breath.  Our heart uses the need for new oxygen as a window to deepen our recognition of the presence of life in ways we might not see through our eyes.

One of the blessings of living in recovery is the ability to take myself less seriously.  I find myself laughing at myself much more than I ever did when I was in pain.  It is the freedom of the heart expressed in a willingness to experiment with life.  I am not watching my back all the time waiting for someone to catch me off guard and hurt me.  This frees up energy to dabble in different things and try them out. I rarely hear the message inside my head telling me I should know how to do things I have never done before.  Dabbling is something I have opened up to doing with my beliefs and fixed ideas.  So much of what we believe we never question.  We just assume it resonates with us because it was given to us.  We believe because so many other people believe the same thing, it must be true. Questioning our assumptions can be scary. On my daily prayer and meditation dates I am given the space to tinker with what I just assumed was a part of who I am.  Yet how much of what we believe or have fixed ideas about do we never question?  How many do we take the time to tinker with? Dabbling in the assumptions we carry breathes new life into them.  It expands our minds and makes room for our hearts to take a peek where perhaps they were barred before.  Dabbling implies a curiosity so there is a safety in making room for it.  We run less risk of jarring ourselves out of a set mindset.  Dabbing allows for a slow unveiling of the truth of ourselves within whatever beliefs or fixed ideas we have if there is in fact space for our truth within them.

We experience ourselves in pieces. It may sound funny until you hear yourself say, “A part of me . . .”  The question is which part of you?  Aren’t we whole beings?  Don’t we exist within a complex system of life?  Why do we separate out our thinking from our feeling?  Or our physical from our mental?  Are they not all part of the entirety of who we are?  One of the perspectives that God brings to the table is the ability to see ourselves as whole.  God created the entirety of who we are.  It is the lens through which love exists.  There is no part of who we are that has not been created by God. Even the parts we do not like.  All of our parts work together to create the entire experience of life.  We find it helpful to categorize them and break them apart yet over and over we discover how interconnected they are.  Often we think if I could just get rid of this part of my personality, physical nature, or idea all would work out fine.  Sometimes we do that but it does not turn out like we imagine because we could not conceive of its impact on the entirety of our experience of life.  On my daily dates with God I am given an opportunity to see the value of the whole of who I am.  I have the chance to pause, go within my heart and see myself and all of life as an entire system.  A whole system created out of love. There are seasons and fluctuations, just like our breath, which make some parts stronger than others at different times.  What we view as a bad part of ourselves may be the thing holding something good about ourselves in place.  God encourages us to embrace the entirety of who we are and of life through the lighted lens of our hearts.  Choosing to see the entirety of ourselves as a dance of many parts brings the peace of our soul to the forefront.  It gives us the grace of acceptance of the parts we think we would be better without.

Many people who are on a spiritual path describe themselves as seekers.  A person who is open to what will be unveiled next.  Someone not satisfied with simply getting an answer but who sees the path of seeking as the content and the process.  A person who is on the journey for the journey sake, not just the destination.  It sounds too simple and pointless when you imagine there is no finding.  But many seekers find all kinds of things on the path of seeking.  Some of which make them stop along the way and pause for a bit.  Then taking what they have received continue deeper on the path with more of their heart walking with them. Seeking is not some sort of maniacal pursuit to keep going like an idiot, although feeling lost from time to time seems to be part of the experience.  It is about remaining open to the possible finds not within one’s horizon of possibility. It is about seeking Spirit as Spirit is not as we expect Spirit to be.  One of my findings on the seekers path has been that the more time I spend getting acquainted with the intricacies of my own heart and spirit, tuning myself to the movements of my soul in my breath and body, I find what I am ultimately seeking . . . a peace, a freedom, a taste of love which no words can describe.  My daily dates with God are my opportunity to step one foot on the path for the day ahead, grounded in the Creator of all of light and life. My eyes are changed and am able to get back up when I stumble, laugh it off when I veer off course, and keep my heart open and focused on the hope of life lit up from the finding of the light within my heart today.

How do we ultimately know when something is real?  Is it because it is certain, authentic, legitimate, credible, accurate?  Is it real because we know it to be true?  How do we determine what constitutes as real for us?  Is it different for everyone?  If what I feel is real but it is not something felt by another person is it still real? Realness speaks to the concept of identifying our own truth.  There are many agreed upon truths which can become beliefs but if those are not seen as real are they still true?  We engage in a collective and individual experience of life simultaneously.  Many conflicts emerge when we do not agree on what is real.  The question becomes how can we honor what is real for us without discounting what is real for someone else?  There is a humility involved in recognizing that one person’s sanity is another person’s crazy.  How many individuals throughout time were called crazy or irrational because they had a different view of reality which turned out to be truer than the accepted reality at the time?  There were many years in the United States when it was unreal to think women would have the vote.  There were lifetimes when the whole world believed the earth really was the center of the universe.  I am sure it felt as real in the past to believe it as it feels unreal to believe it in the present.  To show up and make the contribution we are here to make with our lives we want to convey a level of realness.  People can spot a fake a mile away and it becomes to hard to keep up after a while.  Our real selves always manage to unveil themselves somehow.  God invites us to turn to our hearts to find the real nature of our being.  A nature not reliant on outside validation of what is real. It takes time and effort to weed out the accepted ideas and beliefs of what is real about us and anything for that matter from what is real for us as children of God.  It is the journey of a lifetime.

We have this funny way of thinking if we brush something aside it goes away.  It clears the area and takes it out of view but it does not go away.  It is a gentle nudge and an adjustment of what is right in front of us but it then gathers itself on the peripheral.  In other words it is not the part of the iceberg we can see that causes the damage when we crash into it, it is the part beneath the surface we do not see.   There are times when brushing things aside so we can face the more immediate circumstances of our lives makes sense.  The difference is when we brush things aside because we would rather not deal with them or believe we are not capable of facing.  We risk things compounding or becoming worse until we cannot brush them aside.  Then we are forced to deal with them.  Some might argue that is how it is supposed to go.  It takes courage of the heart to look at something when it is the size at which we can brush it away versus waiting for it to be an immovable force in our lives.  It is choosing to listen to the whispers and hints calling our attention instead of just the bullhorn announcements.  In my experience, Spirit whispers with a still gentle voice, which can easily be brushed aside.  The closer we draw into connection with our hearts the more capable we are to attune ourselves to the frequency of the still small quiet voice.  I believe that some things are meant to be faced when they can be brushed aside and some things are meant to be faced when we can no longer brush them aside.  On my daily dates with God I get to decide in partnership with a being who sees the full value of my strength and courage for this life what calls for brushing and what calls for facing today.

In our minds the dramatic and explosive seem like the best option.  We are fascinated by it in stories, we look for it in the news and in movies, and we think our story is less important if it is not dramatic.  We want the most people to see it and everyone to like it.  Most of life is made up of adjustments.  Little tweaks here and there which add up to look like dramatic changes.  It depends on whether we are playing a long game or a short game.  If we are only in it for the quick and flashy the dramatic experience makes sense.  If we are here for a longer game of life, we will quickly burn out if we are present only for the high impact experiences.  On my daily dates with God I have learned the value of steady and continuous presence.  My heart began to thrive on the consistency and simplicity of showing up for myself each day.  I learned to be open to adjustments in my life because I knew I could admit to needing adjustments without abandoning myself or being abandoned by God. Continuous improvement may not seem like much when we look at in the moment, but when we look upon the arch of our lives we will see the impact of the little adjustments made along the way.  The willingness to keep showing up and make those adjustments because we know they lead us on a path of life bringing fulfillment is the song of our heart and soul.  It may be more flashy and dramatic to make drastic changes but it is the little adjustments which stick and keep us in the game of life for a full life.  It is the adjustments which make the most of the moments we are in and design the path of life of our hearts one day at a time.

In the practice of mindfulness the intention is to be with what you are experiencing, to create an intention to pay attention and notice what is happening, and to practice awareness of oneself and his her surroundings. Whenever we feel someone is not paying attention causing them to do something oblivious we find ourselves asking them, “do you mind?” Having the presence of mind is about noticing and paying attention.  It is about noting with consciousness the awareness we are practicing in the moment.  The irony is the more we notice with our mind, the less we find ourselves minding.  We observe and create some distance from our experience in such a way that our mind is less attached to what is happening.  Mindfulness leads us to mindlessness.  It sounds like a riddle but it is not.  By practicing presence of mind we become aware that much more is going on than what the mind’s dialogue is telling us in our heads.  If we want to mind less and be present for all, we have to start by becoming aware of our state of mind in any given moment.   On my daily dates with God I learn to question what my mind tells me about everything especially everything it states as true.  Our dates have led me to believe there is much more light and laughter present in the world than my mind wants to believe but my heart knows the truth. Minding our mind through the practice of mindfulness enables us to mind our mind less and keep life in perspective.  Like many spiritual solutions, the answer comes when we embrace the thing we feel is responsible for whatever we are struggling with and allow our hearts to see beneath the surface.