dailydatewithgod

Often times we are more affected by situations than we realize.  Life is designed to awaken us to the truth of who we are.  When we get in tune with the sensitivity that draws our attention, we learn about the power to live our lives courageously.  It is not about protecting our sensitivity which is a natural conclusion given that it can cause us to feel vulnerable.  It is about embracing our sensitivity as an avenue to developing our strengths.  People are often made fun of because of their level of sensitivity or because they have certain sensitivities in which the vulnerability is obvious to others.  What if the making fun of was a sign of jealousy? What if the reason it is looked down upon is that those making fun are not in touch with their sensitivity and deep down feel lost?  Perhaps it is mocked is because it is painful to see someone courageously embrace their sensitivity when we do not think we possess the same courage. When we are willing to embrace our sensitivity as a sign of our courage to live life to the fullest we awaken our hearts to take action in alignment with the truth of who we are.  Our being becomes the demonstration of love in action. We may think the world is telling us to hide away and simply protect ourselves from sensitivity but perhaps the world does not know how to ask us to show the courage they too possess but do not know how to tap into.

In the grand design of the universe, we see the interplay of light and dark. We hide in the dark, we play in the light.  We are so enraptured by the light that we use it to guide our way.  How is it then that we are surprised by people or experiences that delight us?  Perhaps it is because of the nature of light itself.  The experience of delight is one in which we feel touched by the light we perceive as outside of us on the inside.  We are captured by something but it is not the thing outside of us which is stirred. It is the presence of light within us that is stirred in moments of delight. We are reminded at that moment that we have light within us.  The all-powerful energy which literally lights up the world lives inside of us all the time.  We are caught off guard by moments of delight and find joy in the surprise because it reminds us of who we are at our core. God encourages to experience moments of delight so that we can remember to carry ourselves connected to the light of life within us as we go through the world.  Our connection to the light allows the love shown in light to be shared and displayed to the delight of others.

The reason everything seems so relative is because of the context in which it occurs.  The black and what perspective of our nature stemming from the survival need to know if we are going to make it through alive wants the certainty.  Opening ourselves up to being in the moment means surrendering to context.  I can read all about something.  I can take advice from those who have been through it before.  It is not until I am in the experience I am being the fullness of who I am resonating with the moment can I respond authentically.  The context of a situation sets the scene and in some cases narrows or widens the possible ways of responding.  Expecting an either-or option causes reaction versus response.  Our breath is about a response.  Our hearts beat in the moment and the rate is affected by the context. Context provides clues and when we do not consider the context in which we are responding we are not being authentic to where or who we are with.  Pausing to check in with the truth of who we are and engaging our soul come by asking, how does the truth of who I am respond to the context of this moment?  If the context from which we operate is in love we will respond with love even in a context that lacks love.  It will look different than a context that encourages love and that is authentic.

A familiar phrase that I have seen often over the years on dating profiles is either in a guy’s personal statement that he is not interested in a woman with baggage or that he does not have any baggage.  The comment causing me to laugh was from the guy who said it didn’t matter if someone had baggage, only that it was a matching set with his. 🙂 I appreciated his humility and honesty and I think I reached out to him, but we never connected.  I guess my profile or picture let him know at the outset that we didn’t have a matching set.  I am not sure I agree with the matching set idea either but it is a step up from the complete fantasy of no baggage.  We all carry around a backpack in this school of life.  In it, we hold on to stories and perceptions from our past.  We have cool pockets with points towards the future, and sometimes there is an old moldy sandwich leftover from well, more than a few days.  I do not care that you have a backpack or any kind of baggage as I want to be in a relationship with a man who is human and who has been affected and shaped by his life as I have.  For me, the deal-breaker is whether or not he knows what is in the backpack and how to find the moldy stinky sandwich and clean it out when needed.  We all, whether on the dating scene or not, have backpacks.  When we look with our eyes, we do not see a backpack, but sometimes their words or actions are an indication that they are reacting to something they are carrying around that is not in the room.  Our hearts give us the courage to look a little closer and see the backpack.  The lens of our hearts provides the compassion to remember we too are carrying around backpacks and maybe do our own share of reacting to them versus the present situation.

There are so many parts that make up any given system.  As individuals we each play a role in our relationships, in the economy, in our idea sharing, in making things, in nature, and so on.  A number of us often go around thinking we do not matter or at least we do not matter that much.  It keeps us from speaking up.  Perhaps somewhere along the way, we were not given a sense of our value or we were valued only for what we could do. Either way not knowing the cog we are in the grand scheme of life leaves us disconnected from the truth of who we are.  We do not see the value we provide as a cog in life that God does.  We assume one little action of ours will not make a difference but we cannot see the whole picture.  We see seconds of impact, God sees millions of ripple effects.  Comically, this was portrayed in the movie Forrest Gump.  He clearly was not someone that most people thought had particularly high value because they perceived him as a stupid. Yet he was a pivotal cog in the wheel of life of so many people like Elvis and Lt. Dan, the events of relations with China to Watergate, and of course those with whom he was in close relationships like Jenny and little Forrest. Forrest was a cog that impacted popular culture and changed the lives of others for the better.  He did it by being himself.  We are the cog that transforms life for so many when we learn to see our role as part of the greater whole.  Like Forrest, we never know when being the cog in the wheel is the very one needed to make the gears move and make incredible things happen.  Our work is to simply show up as the cog we are and allow God to handle working the gears.

Are we open to asking ourselves: is the proxy with me and my heart or is it outside of me today?

Let’s be honest.  Sometimes our mind is not our friend.  It is brilliant and if it was not functioning we would be in deep doo-doo. It gets us into trouble because of our propensity to believe that every thought we think is of high value and should be believed as truth.  Some thoughts are simply charlatans in sheep’s clothing.  The degree to which we can convince ourselves and rationalize our way into a paper bag to protect us from the rain verges on ridiculous. Of course, a paper bag will not protect us in the rain, but we think it as first thought and when we buy in the charlatan has one. It is only when we see it in other people we can recognize the charlatan at work. The distinction needed to separate our propensity to fall for the charlatan thoughts is the pause provided by our hearts.  When we take a breath and engage our hearts, we have the power to see the thought as just a thought.  We can observe it and in some cases, tell the charlatan masquerading as our intelligence, “thanks for sharing.”  The beauty of this practice is that we do not have to wait long before the charlatan spits out another thought.  By reconnecting our minds to our hearts, the energy of our core can inform the charlatan and realign it to a response that is aligned to the truth of who we are.

We carry messages through the way we live.  It is more than our actions and our words.  The energy we embody also conveys a message.  The more willing we are to address the potency levels of our various elements the more of a congruent message we tell with our lives.  If we pay attention, we can detect the mixed messages we get from others. It is why we find confusing people who say one thing with their mouths and do something else with their body language. Other times it is less obvious because it has to do with the energetic potency of what is being said or done. But this is not about other people.  The importance of awareness of potency is about us being in alignment with ourselves and the truth of who we are.  What we perceive about others is filtered through our own personal understanding, there is no way we can truly know what is going on for others just based on our observations.  It actually tells us more about ourselves when we react to how we perceive others and interpret their behavior or words.  We can use our perceptions to detect the level of potency within ourselves.  If our potency of love is high we will most likely witness and react to love.  If our potency of anger is high we will find ourselves angered and annoyed by what we witness in others.  The good news is we can attune ourselves and make adjustments so when we respond, not react, to whatever perception of the potency of another’s message, we do some from the truth of who we are not what we perceive others to be.  There is no right or wrong level of potency to have in our messages at any given moment, it is about being attuned to it within ourselves and owning it as ours, not others.

I am amazed at how quickly we become accustomed to change.  We are very adaptive and have always been.  It is how we keep growing.  The comical element is despite how adaptive we can be, we resist change mostly out of fear.  The same mind that shows us the way to adapt is also the one that creates fear scenes of how it will turn out badly.  When I stepped into recovery it was clear that I had a malady.  The 12 step literature taught me that my malady was spiritual in nature with a physical manifestation known as food addiction, negative thinking, and obesity.  The problems I was having that led me into recovery were not the malady they appeared to be.  It was the underlying way in which I was handling my life. I used the tools I had and it was clear I needed a new set of tools.  The tools I needed were the ones most suited to address the malady.  The ache of fear that was running my life kept me disconnected from my own heart.  The irony, of course, is that it is the malady that brought me to my knees to seek out a different way.  So the malady was the initiation into discovery a way to connect to my heart which housed my true self. God slowly on our dates invited me to see the role that the fear malady played when I let it run the show and what happened when I remembered to breathe into my heart and awaken love. I now think of it as a dance.  When the fear malady shows up, and I feel my breath constrict, I am prompted to breathe deeper and reconnect to the truth of who I am and what I truly need. It is not a dance I always welcome but by taking my heart’s perspective to the fear malady I can see it and all of who I am and who others are with compassion.

One of the powers of our heart is its capacity to tether us to the truth of who we are no matter how many places our mind takes us.  No matter how much the outside world appears to pierce us and cause us to feel fragile and worn out, our heart remains as the tether to the core of who we are.  The tether is the link to God’s vision.  In the infinite movement of the universe where God created all out of love, we appear to be tossed about.  Yet, the tether of our hearts keeps us centered.  Our work is to bring our heart to the mind that is telling us everything but love is true in the moment.  I get it, it is hard to grab the tether of the heart which grounds us in the truth of who we are when the perspective of the opposite is everywhere we look. God taught me on our daily dates that within our breath is the pause to recenter ourselves to the tether of our hearts.  Given that we need to keep breathing to handle all those outside elements of life, we are prompted constantly to remember the truth of who we are.  Some days are harder than others and it seems way to simple to think our breath can ignite the tether of our heart. However, if I have learned anything over these years on my daily dates with God it is that simplicity is the signature of God. We can tether ourselves to the signature and sign on the dotted line of our truth one breath at a time.