dailydatewithgod

I used to think I needed a God who would provide a protective cover.  Based on my experience as a child who lived in fear a lot, it makes sense.  I did not feel safe. I realized in recovery however, that I had placed my understanding of God within the same black and white perspective when it came to wanting cover. What occurred as a particular circumstance colored my view of what life was like.  From my perspective, life was not safe. Food and sugar buffered me from that reality over time but I could no longer use the food.  Plus, I realized the food had not provided the protective cover the way I needed it to.  It only felt like it did.  I see now that it worked well enough to cover me until I could be in a place in my life where I was ready to look at what I could not see before. It was a harsh awakening to realize that I wanted cover from life in general.  I had taken a traumatic experience and because it occurred at such a young age, my brain formed an expectation of life around it.  By translation, I needed cover from all of life.   My daily dates with God invited me to begin to change my perspective.  Over time my idea of God shifted to one of cover from life to one that is with me through all of it. A God who always sees me as the whole being of light and love that am I am at my core.  A God who reminds me when I forget that no outside circumstance defines me or can undo what God has created within me.  I moved from the perspective of someone who wants God to provide a protective cover from life to a God who stands with me to face whatever life has uncovered for me to discover this day. God knows all of life’s circumstances give me a chance to show up and find out who I truly am.

How can we utilize the skill of mindfulness to involve our hearts and minds into our invoking today?

The funny thing about the times we are living in is the increased conversation about uncertainty.  Okay, so maybe funny is the wrong descriptor but given that most of the time things are in fact uncertain it is like we are simply waking up to the reality.  We often live under the illusion that all will turn out the way we want it to.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes we can do all the planning and preparation.  We can set up the trajectory in such a way that it will certainly have a particular result and then it doesn’t.  We scramble to figure out if we set up the trajectory wrong or if we left out variables or if it was just dumb luck.  We leave out the part about how life has this flow to it and while it often runs along a given trajectory sometimes it diverges.  Because we get alarmed at the divergence, we think there is a problem.  Perhaps what we label as a failed trajectory is simply life surprising us.  We determine that if it is a surprise we think we do not want then we failed.  As human beings focused on survival we forget to look at the trajectory over time.  We focus on declining stocks yet when we look at the trajectory of the market over time we see it keeps going up.  God invites us to take the breaths initiated by our hearts to open up the trajectory we are focusing on with our minds and see other avenues that might be possible.  When we take a step back from the trajectory we are planning for and open up to what else is possible we see what God sees.

One of my favorite songs is “Shape of My Heart,” by Sting. I will hold off on going off on about the artistry of both the music and the lyrics and simply say that it speaks to my heart as though it knows the essence of the beating element within me. It is a song that upon hearing it I can’t help but feel myself dancing from the inside out.  It seems to make a distinction between the machinations of our mind and actions and the contours of our hearts.  It hints that the shape of one’s heart keeps it within a particular realm which is not that which is measured by the world as valuable.  As we get to know the contours of our own hearts we become acquainted with what resonates with it and what does not.  The things outside the contours of our heart are valuable and have a role, but they may not live well within the contours of our hearts. We are often so busy trying hard to fit the shape of who we are literally and figuratively into what the world expects, we disregard the contours of our hearts.  It is only when we awaken to the discord that we are open to reconciling and opening up a dance in which the contours of our hearts can hold space for the things of the world.  The contour does not allow us to forget the truest essence of who we are. The contour of our hearts is what invites us to see with love that which it may not have space for but can witness to its value and role in the world.  The contour holds the space for us to be fueled by the courage we need to show up and face the world bringing what only our hearts can bring.

In some ways, we are just beginning to understand how energy works.  Scientists have understood a great deal about different energetic forces present in the universe for a long time.  In many ways, we have excluded our human experience as separate from that conversation.  Somehow it was parcel out to the spiritual or bizarre phenomenon for which there was no explanation.  However, if we take a closer look at how we are designed and the impact of those outside forces of energy we develop an awareness of the radiation which impacts us.  Even more sublime is the exploration into the radiation of energy within ourselves.  We grasp it on the physical level. We get that we ingest food and water which is converted to energetic fuel.  We notice how are our energy levels impact our ability to perform physically.  When it comes to the mental and emotional layers of radiation it gets a bit foggier.  It is the work of such places as the Heart Math Institute or the work of neuroscience opening the conversation about how energy is radiating throughout our system having an impact on how we function on all levels. While typically relegated to a solely spiritual conversation none of us can deny that we feel an energy burst when we see someone we love.  How many people would readily admit that when they come across an angry person that whatever is radiating around them they want to steer clear of it?  Taking the time to notice what radiation is present within us is the first step.  With it, we can begin to notice what kind of radiation is occurring within us when we are focused from our minds versus our hearts or when the two are in alignment.  The curiosity around our levels and kind of internal radiation helps us to determine how we optimally operate as a whole being.

When we look at the intertwined threads of life we see how the fabric is formed.  All too often we take for granted all the threads involved in the fabric and the value of each.  We use the fabric to make garments and involve more hands and lifetimes of experience different than our own.  God encourages us to value each of the threads which make up the fabric of our very existence.  There are the threads of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual which are woven together inextricably to design the fabric we know as our being.  Pausing to notice which threads are more dominant or quiet at any moment of our being is more than a nicety.  It is a chance to get to know the beauty of what makes us who we are.  The same goes when we interact with others.  We often react to people’s fabric by focusing on one thread of their expression.  There is so much more we are not seeing.  It calls upon us if we wish to live in harmony and appreciation with each other to use all the threads of our fabric to get to know all the threads of the fabric of others.

If there is anything that is going to keep me from being able to see it is my limited perspective.  It is not whether or not something is physically within my sight or in my mind of imagination.  It is about my openness to possibilities extending beyond what I can come up with on my own.  We assign particular functions and ideas of how things are expected to be.  When they operate outside of that we are either disappointed or surprised.  We even have a word for something stepping outside its function, malfunction. Learning to notice where the unexpected function presented itself happens within my heart.  It is the core of who we are which can unlock the limitations that our minds place around the functions of things in our life.  We have prescribed functions for things, people, roles, events, and so on.  When something steps outside its expected function we tend to think it is wrong instead of holding the possibility that it is here to show us how we can limit ourselves without realizing it.  We are fascinated when a spy in a movie uses a shoe to make a phone call or a ring to spray a toxin and defeat the villain.  Why is noticing how saying the wrong thing in the wrong environment opened up a conversation that would not have happened had it not been sparked.  Stepping outside the expected function opens up avenues we did not know were there. By paying attention to the nudging of our hearts of when to operate within or outside a function we are surrendering to what might be possible outside our realm of what we know.  God invites us to be surprised by life by being open to the opportunities presented by a malfunction.

So much of what we are often faced with is the overlay of something else.  The element which presents itself as a problem is the piece that comes as a result of something else or is an extension of another piece.  The original cause has wrapped itself around in such a fashion that we are not clear on its origin.  We find ourselves trying to figure out the purpose of the lapel without knowing what coat it is attached to.  We deal with symptoms and effects instead of looking at the causes and conditions.  I know from my experience in recovery, the longer I spend time focusing on the lapel the less effective I will be at determining the purpose of the garment.  So much of what is happening when we interact with others is people showing each other their lapels but not their coats.  It is like trying to dress someone based on their accessories. I am no fashionista but I believe the basic garments are picked first.   Shopping to find a dress to match the shoes always led me on a wild goose chase but then again if I was a fashionista I would probably love the chase. Besides, who is looking at the shoes?  The last time I focused primarily on the shoes was when I wore a uniform to school.  One has to stand out somehow, right?  But I digress.  My primary focus is not on the lapels when I choose a coat or a shirt. They may be super chic but if the shirt is the wrong size or the body of it is not my color, it will not work.  Yet when we deal solely in symptoms and effects we are doing the same.  God invites us to pause and notice from where the lapel of a person’s actions or ideas are extending.  The lapels are the words and actions.  The body of the garment is the purpose behind the words and actions.  It is easy and immediate to react to the lapel.  It takes the wisdom of the breath to pause and notice we are wearing the same garment.

One of the elements I miss in an electronic communication is tone.  There is something powerful about the quality of sound emanating from another person.  Someone’s tone is so much more than the sound of their voice which can perhaps be overlayed by the reader of someone’s message from memory.  The tone conveys the quality of the mood, the body posture, the context in which they are conveying their message, and the energy level of the human being.  I would love it if it could be like it is in the movies when the actual person narrates during the reading of the message but that is one of the differences between movies and life. What actually happens is that I use my tone to read the message.  I know this because when my mood does not match the words of the message I sometimes misread the message. When I pause to notice this I can recognize perhaps why my reaction is disproportionate to the situation.  Given how much communication happens void of tone, it is important that I have an awareness of my own tone.  On my daily dates with God, I am invited to notice the tone with which I enter our date.  God has shown me how to develop an awareness of the difference or similarity between the tone of my mind and the tone of my heart.  It is subtle and yet it speaks to the power of deepening an awareness of the truth of who we are versus how we want to react.  Each moment of communicative interaction in whatever form is an opportunity to be with what our tone is and how we want to convey it to others.

It is convenient to think of things as being one or the other.  It makes sense to our minds if we can categorize something or someone into this file or that file.  The organization of our reality is important to our sense of safety. Part of maturity is realizing that most things which have presence are not one or the other, they are what they are in the moment they are in.  There is much more nuance to aliveness then our minds can grasp.  It is neither light nor dark, it is shades of aliveness.  Our hearts which are ever aware of the reliance upon the flow of life in and out understand the need to make room for the shades of being. It is difficult in a results-driven culture to make room to value the process.  The process is messy and nuanced. The process requires presence in the moment to whatever shade of our experience is showing up.  Our hearts give us the courage to breathe through whatever shade of darkness or light is present.  We build up ideas in our minds that all good and light is the best way to be.  If being present means allowing for some shades of darkness to be there which would we rather? Do we want to not be present with what is and stay only with an expected ideal in our heads or do we want to live in and through an experience fully which is right here, right now?  The shades of darkness that we seemingly want to avoid can often make a turn towards the light sooner than I imagine.  In my experience being with those shades allows them to move through me instead of causing me to hold on to them because I am trying to pretend they are not there.