dailydatewithgod

In the world of business and self-development, I hear a lot about the power of persuasion.  Especially for those who are trying to sell a product or get attention in an attention derived economy. While I am not in sales myself, I can acknowledge that most business interactions involve some level of sales and negotiation.  Those with the most influence appear to be the most successful.  While there are many ways to gain influence there are some that stand out.  I am most influenced by those whose actions match their words.  It is great if they can talk a great talk but if it does not match up with their behavior it does not hold water for me. What I am left wondering is, what kind of influence do we have based on how we are being of which we are not aware?  What kinds of influence do we have within ourselves?  Is our influence driven by the energy of our hearts or our minds or a combination of both? On my daily dates with God, I am invited to get to know the influences upon my heart and from my heart.  Have you ever been working on or towards something and it doesn’t ever seem to work out?  Have you ever found yourself with all the right tools and yet your mind has no influence on your behavior?  In those moments, I am called to look at my heart.  What energy am I holding in my heart that is influencing my perception and my power to do what I think and feel I want to do?  My prayer becomes: God, guide me to the spaces of my heart holding influence over what it is that I am facing.  Grant me the courage to see with the eyes of love how the influence can be embraced and released.

So much of how we understand our world comes from how we describe it.  Nothing has meaning until we give it meaning.  Our perception of an experience is formed from meaning and we provide a depiction of our universe based on our perception.  Our perceptions then become the filters through which we experience everything else. Imagine how our experience would change if we created different depictions.  How could we alter our perceptions if we changed the depictions in our lives? The primary way I have found to alter my perception is by paying attention to the depictions provided by others.  What depictions are we not aware of which exist for others? Our eyes and ears may want to block these unknown depictions as not real or possible but our hearts have the courage to at least take a look.  Our hearts remind us the depictions hold meaning and value for others.  How might we soften our experiences of others and their depictions by remembering their perceptions hold value for them even if not for us? What growth experiences could we have if we made room for the heart-listening of other’s depictions without judgment?  How might we widen our perceptions of life and open up our meanings by honoring the depictions of others as just as valid as our own?  Our hearts call upon us to open our horizons for the growth of love because it is our heart’s that know it will not break apart whomever or whatever limited version our head tells us we are.

It has been said that we ought to notice not the number of breaths something takes but the things that take our breath away.  Literally and figuratively this could be a guiding line into an understanding of reverence in our lives. The solemnity with which we approach particular people, topics, or experiences gives us a window into what we hold sacred.  The level of ceremony that surrounds the solemnity of something clues us into a deeper part of ourselves we may have not been aware of.  There are often expected levels of solemnity because of cultural constraints and sometimes we do not realize we hold them sacred because we are just doing what is expected.  What about the solemn nature with which we regard the life of another person?  At the end of their life, the solemnity goes up.  What was happening during the course of that person’s life?  Do we not hold them in a place of solemnity while they are still breathing?  What if the life we are considering is our own?  How much solemnity do we give to our own lives as a whole or even the different elements of our lives?  We tout our successes and pick out the parts of ourselves to be held in regard for all to see.  Does that mean the shadow elements of ourselves are not as valued?   What if the parts of ourselves we wish to remain unknown to others and to ourselves becomes the sacred beacon through which we can flourish?  How might our lives shift in sacredness for all of life as a whole if we regarded the unknown and hidden parts of our nature with the same solemnity as we hold the acceptable parts?

As a kid, I was a picky eater.  In some ways, I am still one but for different reasons.  As a kid, I knew what I liked and was certain I knew what I would not like.  The point of maturity is the opportunity to open ourselves up to different palates. We develop a sense of identity-based around what we like and don’t like and when we are willing to expose ourselves to different palates we get to broaden our horizon and get to know ourselves in a different way.  The thing about choosing the exposure is it requires risk.  It calls upon us to want to get to know an unknown element about ourselves.  It is not about doing it because other people think we should as it might have been when we’re kids.  It is about our heart’s desire to show us a side of ourselves through a different lens, a new experience, and build our muscles of curiosity.  While I may not have been interested in different foods, I have always been interested in different kinds of people and places.  I am endlessly curious about the cultures and ways of thinking and being.  Beckoning my heart’s call to engage my curiosity on the various palates of life allows me to strengthen the muscle of my heart’s eyes and breathe in new elements of what lights me up.

It’s funny how something we are so familiar with can get to the point where we are not aware of its existence.  We only notice it when it is absent.  We experience this with light all the time. More often you will hear sometime mention how dark it is versus how much light is present.  We take for granted that we can create light in darkness anytime we want.  Aside from electricity, there is the ability to pull up a shade, light a candle, or turn on a flashlight.  It begs the question of where else is the presence of darkness in our lives where we don’t know we can access light?  Where are the spaces where the possibility of light exists but we don’t know where the switch is or we don’t know how to remove whatever is blocking the light getting through?  Walking around the Enchanted Light Forest at Descanso Gardens this holiday season reminded me of how captivated we are by the presence of light especially when we experience it in contrast to darkness.  We notice how light gives life and shape to the darkness.  We are touched in our hearts by how it dances as if playing with the darkness. Light does not fear the darkness. Most of all, light is a sign of hope that despite all effort darkness has not won out.  Bill W wrote, “It is darkest before the dawn.”  Just when we find ourselves in darkness we can’t imagine every ending, the light peaks on the horizon and a new day begins. Our hearts give us the courage to wander into the darkness knowing we just need to reconnect with the light within ourselves to help illuminate that which we are afraid is a permanent state of being. A light that seems hidden to our eyes is accessible through our hearts.

We imagine ourselves to be people who are thinkers and then doers.  Often it is the reverse.  So much of what we do is automatic we do not realize the action has already begun or taken place before we are thinking about it.  You can call them instinctual or a result of years of an evolutionary pattern but much of it is helpful.  If we were to wait to be cognizant of something before taking action we might be dead. In the western world, there is much discussion around connecting to our purpose, meaning, discovering who we are and what we are about especially at this time of year.  If we look at our lives our actions tell us a lot about our lives because they show us what we are actually doing.  Noticing what we have the propensity for provides an insight into how we see ourselves, what we think our role or purpose is, and what our priorities are.  Often we do not know what propensities we have because we are not cognizant of them.  Pausing to notice them is the first step to connecting to what is so about us.  Then we can take a breath and see if there is a connection between our propensities and the knowing in our hearts. When we are open to aligning the two our lives become the living embodiment of who we are at our core.  In recovery, I started to look at my unknown propensities by doing an inventory of my life. Taking a look at my unknown propensities became the key to opening myself up to how my heart, mind, and body were misaligned.  My daily dates with God and traveling the path of the 12 steps provide the continual process by which I can align my propensities with my heart and mind and live powerfully from the truth of who I am at my core.

Living and traveling around Los Angeles no matter how well you know the territory having a GPS system to assist with navigation is helpful.  Aside from the general ability to get assistance with how to get from point A to point B, most systems these days will be able to tell you how long it is likely to take.  In Los Angeles, the length of travel time is more essential to navigation than the actual mileage. I am guessing it is the same in other busy traffic cities but it is funny how one’s concept of navigation changes depending on the purpose.  Unless one has no timelines, a way to navigate from point A to point B is necessary.  Yet, how much of the navigation we follow really get us to where we want to go?  What additional kinds of navigation is often given to us but we balk at it because it doesn’t make sense or we think we need to know the exact ending spot? What if the purpose of the navigation is only meant to get us on the road? What if it is about embarking on the trip of life and taking it one mile at a time?  Most GPS systems will adjust as we take turns and not on the set course.  Our hearts function in this navigational fashion.  When we are bound to get frustrated and upset when things are not going according to plan or fear we have veered too far off track, our hearts are there to take us down a notch and make room for adjustments.  Our hearts are the space where the idea of wherever we are in the course of our travels there is something valuable that can be learned.  The navigation of our hearts reminds us as long as we are still on the trip not all is lost.  It is when we allow the purpose or course of navigation as set in our minds to overrule who we are for the sake of reaching a known destination that we have truly gotten lost. Our hearts are the place within ourselves whispering to reconnect and get peak our curiosity by learning something unknown to us about ourselves in the course of travels.

There is this strange phenomenon by which we only understand things due to an experience of their opposite.  It is not a secret we live a dual experience yet we consistently strive to maintain only one side. We want to be happy all the time, we only want good things to happen, we want to have money and things, and so on.  The things or ideas we perceive as being on the positive side of the spectrum are what we want to maintain.  I am not wondering why more people don’t want to be sad.  I get that.  Why do we fall for the idea that life can and should be only one side of the duality?  I do it too.  I want to maintain the good feelings, I resist the bad ones, and I even go so far as to think I have failed or there is something wrong with me if I am experiencing the downside of duality. What if all it is the variety of life? There were times in my life when I decided to close my heart off because I had was hurt.  What I did not know until much later is that I didn’t just avoid getting hurt.  I avoided being loved and giving love.  The ebb and flow, the change of course, the good and the bad, the right and wrong are all part of this life experience. Each time I find myself resisting reality I know deep down it is pointless.  In recovery and on my daily dates with God I learned how to be with whatever is happening.  I may not like it or understand it.  Within all of us is the courage to feel and be with whatever we are experiencing.  The more I am willing to tap into the courage of my heart and be with what is the more vivid life becomes.  The duality becomes something I no longer need to avoid or try and run from.  I can open up to it on a very simple level when I breathe in and out instead of holding my breath.

The funny thing about all the labels we have for each other from the simple man or woman to black or white is we are so used to them we think they are who we are.  We look to other people with the same label to understand more about ourselves.  When we are asked to describe ourselves we use the same labels.  The labels are only part of the story.  There are known elements of ourselves.  But what about the unknown elements of who we are?  What about the areas of ourselves we have yet to explore?  How much of who you are is contained as a construct in your mind versus a knowing in your heart?  How much of what really makes you you is housed in what you know about yourself versus what is unknown to you about you?  What might we learn about ourselves if we take the time to look at ourselves without our labels?  How might God want to show us who we truly are in the quiet dark spaces we dare not tread?  What if the labels we fear also describe us are not what they seem?  What if what we think we know about ourselves is more about what we want to know versus what we are afraid to know?  What if we could embark on a journey into the unknown through our hearts?  What if God is calling us at every moment with each breath and ignition of our hearts to take a peek at the unknown of ourselves through the lens God has placed in our hearts?  What if?

Taking a moment to recognize what is within all of us but sometimes we are not able to see means adopting an attitude of humility that does not come easily.  It is the dance of life that we go back and forth and all around what it is we truly know and understand about ourselves and our experience.  It is said that this is the only moment we are in and can fully be present to.  The key is being present to it but not being hindered or driven by what we arrive with.  How can we take an attitude of learning when we are valued by what we already know and held in less esteem when we are unknown?  These are the wonderings and questions of a seeker of the heart and light of life. It begins the curious conversation of what to find ourselves into an experience versus having it or knowing it.  Our souls pull on our hearts strings to embody our knowing which goes much below a knowing in our head. It begins with the breath and acknowledging that our unknown is just as valuable as our known.  As we embark on another year of exploring our understandings of the Great I AM, the Creator or whatever names one gives such a presence, I invite us all to stay connected to our breath as a gateway to our hearts.  It is where life begins and ends.