I recently had surgery for the first time in over thirty years. While not the most pleasant thing physically to go through, I was and remain grateful for the deep feeling of peace that permeated my being throughout the entire experience. I felt an unshakable connection within Source, and from that, a heartful connection with all those that so beautifully and lovingly took care of me at the hospital. There was some question as to the severity of the situation, and yet a calm engulfed me and centered me from the beginning to the end. I am now experiencing some complications, and they are providing me with additional invitations as to how to relate to what is occurring. And the invitation to awakened relationship with what is occurring is what an engaged and actualized spirituality is all about.
When I was a New Thought newbie many years ago I thought I had found a way of controlling what happened to me in this crazy and mostly unpredictable world. I didn’t realize that at the time, of course. Ideas like manifesting and creating my own reality were foreign yet magical concepts that filled me with wonder and also with the notion that I had finally found a way of managing my world and the often out of the blue occurrences that frequently knocked me for a loop. I thought that if I said enough affirmations and kept discomfort and negativity mostly at bay I would lead a predictable, safe, and controllable life.
I do not need to tell most of you that things did not turn out that way. Even as I have deepened into an intimate, incredible, felt-sense experience of my Source and of my Soul there have been losses, deaths, illnesses, financial gains-losses, betrayals, fears, and situations that once again came totally out of the blue. There have also been wins, transcendences, miracles, healings, and more love than I ever dreamed possible. The surface mind would want to categorize those into evidences of right and wrong manifestations. The mind will always perceive dualistically. The truth is that life is life, and all sorts of situations, circumstances, relationships, and happenings fill our days and sometimes disturb our nights. It isn’t about never having hard times. It is more about what I like to call relate-ability.
Relate-ability begins with staying spiritually awake and also with staying centered in the present moment regardless of what is happening. Source may only be experienced in the Now, and so coming back to a space of present moment awareness is essential. Source may only be experienced in an open heart, and will never be found in a spinning mind. Source is not a concept to be thought but a reality to be felt. A concept has no power when the chips are down. You need an experience. You need a vibrational home base. This home is established and fortified with consistent practice and devotion. You need to literally move into this Home. Taking up residence within this heartful, Soulful place you are where you need to be when the economy tanks, the diagnosis comes, the lover leaves, or the pink slip is delivered. When you breathe consciously into your Holy Home, relate-ability is the natural bi-product. It is the state of being and the sure way of connecting. You know who and what you are and so you know you are capable of relating wakefully to what is occurring. Life may still throw curves but you are flexible and spacious enough to either make a graceful catch or to easily step aside.
I have heard it said that you do not know the quality of an orange until it is squeezed. I have found that to be very true, and it has little to do with citrus. I believe that our Souls prepare tests that assist us in building, focusing, and strengthening our faith muscles. Even in the middle of these health challenges I feel stronger and more centered than ever. My relate-ability feels keen and sure. Not that there haven’t been waves. There have. But my surfing skills have never been better. I don’t currently know how all of this is going to play out. And I have a deep conviction that whatever occurs it will be for my highest good. It will be in service of my sacred emergence, and that is my highest priority. I am staying prayerfully focused and non-attached to the outcomes. The old impulse to control is remarkable weakened. And at this point in my journey that feels like incredible strength.
And so I am celebrating this day the evolution of relate-ability, and the peace that it brings to my heart. There is a strong current within my center, and I am relaxing into the flow of Life as it carries me along. I am cooperating where I once tried to control, and it is a far more serene place to reside. I trust Life. I trust how things are unfolding. I trust that in relate-ability I will be shown exactly what I need to see and will have all that I need to cope with what is occurring. Relate-ability is not about trying to control externals. It is about wakefully relating to them. That is authentic power. And in authentic power there is indeed incredible peace.
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