I am living in a particularly rich and wondrous time of my life. I dwell in amazement as I see all the puzzle pieces of my life come together to form a picture that is truly beyond my wildest dreams. I arise each day aware of the profound blessing that it is to be alive and to be spiritually awake. To recognize that I am a part of a greater whole of humanity and that I am governed by the eternal whisperings of Divinity. It is not that some of my preferences are not challenged or that I am constantly getting my way. It is that my perspective has shifted in profound ways that leave me to recognize that everything is for good when I stay plugged into Source-God.
That is not the same as the old punish-reward paradigm that I was taught in the religion of my youth. Meritocracy is not authentic gratitude. “If you do right you will be blessed, and if you do wrong you will be punished.” While the Law of cause and effect is always operative, grace transcends our inadequacies and always delivers more good than we could ever put forward. Source-God is always containing everything that occurs, and gratitude is the magic key to unlocking the All-potential of God-Good that is ever available.
In makes no sense to the logical mind, yet as soon as you thank whatever may be occurring it begins to reveal illogical and unexpected blessings. Gratitude and thanksgiving is a lens in consciousness that reveal the greater possibility of any circumstance or appearance. No matter how dire the challenge, consciously saying thank you in advance of the solution creates a context which is miraculous and infallible. I know in my life it never fails. If I fall into the trap of worrying and cursing what I perceive to be a problem I block the flow of the potential good that is always seeking to come forth. I clamp down on infinite potential. When I awaken to what I am doing, and make the shift toward gratitude and blessing, the floodgates open. I always feel it before I see it. My energy system comes alive. I am in a real sense re-born.
While I have for many years kept a daily gratitude journal that lists what I am thankful for, I was gifted with a major perceptual shift a decade or so ago that truly changed my life. Rather than stopping at what I am grateful for, I choose to live in a state of gratitude that is beyond form, circumstance, or prize. I am living in a state of being grateful FROM. I am contextual Thanksgiving. I don’t need to have something to be grateful for. I am grateful for the sake of the experience of gratitude alone. I can truly feel at a sense-level the turn-around of a sarcastic phrase I used to hear in college; “thanks for nothing!” What used to sting now gives me internal zing! This quip used to point out that whatever had been said or shared had no value or worth to the resistant recipient. Being grateful from reveals that everything is of value and everything has worth. And so I am grateful for all that is, and I am grateful for nothing in particular. I am thankful because being thankful aligns me with the True nature of what I am.
So I am indeed living in a particularly rich and wondrous time of my life. The externals are good and very good. Yet it is the formless interior of my gratefulness that fills me with such joy. I can say to life “thanks for nothing,” and that to me is everything.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Radical Indeed
Sometimes I am being so “radically expressed” that I don’t have the time to sit and write about it.
Or at least that is how it feels. The last time I composed and posted a “Radical Expression” blog was just before beginning my job as Sr. Minister at Unity of the Palm Beaches. That was in March of this year. It has been a radical shift indeed. I have moved from being an itinerant preacher-free agent to leading a re-birthing and dynamic spiritual community that is in every way a full time commitment. And I have never felt such a deep and complete knowing that I am in my right place. I know in a profound and unflinching way that I am doing exactly what I was born to do. I feel as if every phase and adventure of my wild and wondrous incarnation was preparing me for this incredible form of service. I live in awe of how I landed here.
This is something that I in no way planned. I began to feel a stirring within myself more than a year and a half ago, and began to pray into a place of clarity regarding where that stirring was leading. I tapped in. I listened. I surrendered. I softened around my preferences. I asked the Source within me to use me in service of something larger than myself. And in the midst of this process came the unexpected: cancer.
I didn’t see it coming, and yet there it was. Diagnosed on July 3rd 2013, by July 4th I knew that my platform had such expanded. I never saw it as an enemy, only as an opportunity. I knew that whatever happened and however it turned out, it would be in service of my sacred emergence. It turned out to be exactly that. Now cancer free, I regard it as a rare and honored teacher and friend. Moving through the experience of cancer readied me for the task that was being placed before me. It was my advanced degree in compassion and acceptance. I am forever grateful for all of my academic schooling, and it in many ways pales in comparison to the practicum of a life challenging illness. Unity principles are in no way conceptual for me. Co-founder Myrtle Fillmore is more comrade than icon. Though my perspective certainly varied in ways, her example was a beacon in the dark moments of this path.
To be radical is to be rooted in. On this side of both the cancer and the career shift I am more rooted in my Source than ever. I must, then, remain rooted in order to accomplish the work that is before me now. This radical rooting is what sources my expression on a daily basis. I am in a very literal way living consciously in and giving way to my Source in personal and practical ways. I am blessed to pray with people every day. I am blessed to lecture, to teach, to train, to lead, to express about the Love of my Source every single day. Isn’t that amazing? I am ridiculously blessed! Outrageously! I am aligned with my purpose and so every day is a radical expression of what I am here to be and do.
And you, dear reader; what does your own radical expression look and feel like? What is stirring inside of you, seeking fuller and freer expression? What might you currently view as obstacle that with a breath of surrender could contribute to your own deeper sense of rootedness?
It all belongs, my friends. It is all for you. Life is for you. Life loves you. And Life is seeking radical expression through you. Let. Listen, let, live. The most radical expression is the experience of what you are.
Or at least that is how it feels. The last time I composed and posted a “Radical Expression” blog was just before beginning my job as Sr. Minister at Unity of the Palm Beaches. That was in March of this year. It has been a radical shift indeed. I have moved from being an itinerant preacher-free agent to leading a re-birthing and dynamic spiritual community that is in every way a full time commitment. And I have never felt such a deep and complete knowing that I am in my right place. I know in a profound and unflinching way that I am doing exactly what I was born to do. I feel as if every phase and adventure of my wild and wondrous incarnation was preparing me for this incredible form of service. I live in awe of how I landed here.
This is something that I in no way planned. I began to feel a stirring within myself more than a year and a half ago, and began to pray into a place of clarity regarding where that stirring was leading. I tapped in. I listened. I surrendered. I softened around my preferences. I asked the Source within me to use me in service of something larger than myself. And in the midst of this process came the unexpected: cancer.
I didn’t see it coming, and yet there it was. Diagnosed on July 3rd 2013, by July 4th I knew that my platform had such expanded. I never saw it as an enemy, only as an opportunity. I knew that whatever happened and however it turned out, it would be in service of my sacred emergence. It turned out to be exactly that. Now cancer free, I regard it as a rare and honored teacher and friend. Moving through the experience of cancer readied me for the task that was being placed before me. It was my advanced degree in compassion and acceptance. I am forever grateful for all of my academic schooling, and it in many ways pales in comparison to the practicum of a life challenging illness. Unity principles are in no way conceptual for me. Co-founder Myrtle Fillmore is more comrade than icon. Though my perspective certainly varied in ways, her example was a beacon in the dark moments of this path.
To be radical is to be rooted in. On this side of both the cancer and the career shift I am more rooted in my Source than ever. I must, then, remain rooted in order to accomplish the work that is before me now. This radical rooting is what sources my expression on a daily basis. I am in a very literal way living consciously in and giving way to my Source in personal and practical ways. I am blessed to pray with people every day. I am blessed to lecture, to teach, to train, to lead, to express about the Love of my Source every single day. Isn’t that amazing? I am ridiculously blessed! Outrageously! I am aligned with my purpose and so every day is a radical expression of what I am here to be and do.
And you, dear reader; what does your own radical expression look and feel like? What is stirring inside of you, seeking fuller and freer expression? What might you currently view as obstacle that with a breath of surrender could contribute to your own deeper sense of rootedness?
It all belongs, my friends. It is all for you. Life is for you. Life loves you. And Life is seeking radical expression through you. Let. Listen, let, live. The most radical expression is the experience of what you are.
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