I was listening to someone share yesterday about time spent with their grandmother, who was near the end of her well-lived life facing her transition. She couldn’t find a word to describe her visit, knowing it would be her last, feeling the pain of losing her and the joy of love they shared, finding comfort in their relationship and fear in the unknown. To me, it’s a time in life where there is no room for anything but truth, the beauty of truth.
“When we awaken to the call of beauty, we become aware of new ways of being in the world. We were created to be creators. At its deepest heart, creativity is meant to serve and evoke beauty. When this desire and capacity come alive, new wells spring up in parched ground; difficulty becomes invitation and rather than striving against the grain of our nature, we fall into rhythm with its deepest urgency and passion. The time is now ripe for beauty to surprise and liberate us. Beauty is a free spirit and will not be trapped within the grid of intentionality. In the light of beauty, the strategies of the ego melt like a web against a candle.” Excerpted from John O’Donohue’s book, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
As I practice silence every day, I’m strengthening my ability to sense truth. I perceive with my eyes not only images of what is physically before me, but my inner eyes sense more. My skin rises to truth. I don’t know how else to describe the sensation, but when truth is spoken, goose bumps form. The activity under my skin pauses to pay attention. My heart sings in truth, swells with an incredible wonderful feeling.
Beyond the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, new thought is expanding on the idea that love is the fifth element.
“Love is an element which though physically unseen is as real as air or water. It is an acting, living, moving force... it moves in waves and currents like those of the ocean.” --Prentice Mulford, an author pivotal in the new thought movement
Often in this group during our reflections, my body hums. Though subtle, as I practice, I tune into the resonating qualities. The sounds of truth. As I look back on my life, I recognize my trend towards truth as I sorted out my friends, my interests, my goals. I’ve come to appreciate my sense of truth was present from the start. With time, dysfunctional situations and my ego clamoring to belong, be important, be accepted, be loved, I stopped listening to my truth.
Truth is the lifeline that brought me back to myself. When I broke open, I found my truth. The more I sought truth, the better I was able to sense it.
“The heart of all creativity is the awakening and flowering of individuality. The mystery and magic of being an individual is to live life in response to the deep call within, the call to become who we were dreamed to be. In primal terms, it is the call to discover and realize the divine blueprint in the soul. This is where true freedom awaits us.” --John Donohue
As you practice silence, be patient with your mind as it defines your truth. Remember the mind is the web that we peer through to see our divine nature. Truth is not loud and bossy. Truth is quietly unassuming, ever present. We are more than just our five known senses. We are living, breathing, multi-functioning beings awakening with new awareness every day, in a transitioning world. Our inner compass is our divine connection guiding us.
Living in truth does not mean our problems go away and we exist in green meadows and rainbows in the sky. Discerning truth means we exist with eyes that see both inward and outward, ears that hear outside sounds and our inner voice.
“There are times when life seems little more than a matter of struggle and endurance, when difficulty and disappointment form a crust around the heart. Because it can be deeply hurt, the heart hardens. There are corners in every heart which are utterly devoid of illusion, places where we know and remember the nature of devastation. Yet though the music of the heart may grow faint, there is in each of us an unprotected place that beauty can always reach out and touch.” --John O'Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
The next time you find yourself wandering through a store, on a path, in the woods, down the street, wander with awareness as you feel inner impulses to turn right or left, or continue forward. Quiet, tiny impulses that guide you to choose a parking space, glance at an object, focus closer to or step away from something that got your attention. Assume divine synchronicity instead of coincidence. Assume miracle instead of irony. Breathe more expansively into the possibility you are not alone, guided by the presence of the most expansive, all-encompassing power of love that fuels your every move.
While we explore and wander with awareness, the sages of past and present, wise yogis and teachers, guides and healers, our ancestors and beings of light and love hold the truth for us. We wander and learn. We wander into wisdom. We wander in love.
Participants’ Reflections:
Thank you. That was a beautiful, beautiful reflection this morning. Beauty and love and John O’Donohue. What can get better than that? And all of you in this meditation community. I had a beautiful insight this morning. I’m been practicing enso circles which are sacred circles. I mentioned to someone that I’m not good at it. She said, “perfect circles are overrated.” I use Stevia powder in my tea. I put it in and I saw this swirl. It was a perfect enso, I thought. How did I do that? It was by accident, but not really. The same swirls we see in space, in the Universe. It was such a gift from the Universe. See? This is how it’s done. And now, I get to drink my tea with the perfect enso. And talking about O’Donohue saying it’s not so much by intention, beauty is, and that current of love. It’s wonderful. In a tiny second of a moment.
Thank you. What I was thinking was the despair, my emotions that I am in, over my situation and my limitations. So many things I need to do. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t hold truth and gratitude for this group and to you. Such honesty and integrity, without ego. We are all together, we are all the same and yet different. I am very grateful that I don’t have to do anything. It just comes to me, I witness it and feel it, the things in nature, the animals, the flowers, the trees. Every day I see things. To me, that is truth and beauty and grace. There are many times in a brief moment I see something and I feel it and it stays with me. If I didn’t have all those beautiful connections, I would be so desolate. So I am grateful
This meditation brought to mind a hymn that says ‘I wonder as I wander.’ There’s only a one vowel difference in those two words. When I take walks, if I am in a state of wonder, then as I wander I’m in a state of presence out in nature, breathing clean mountain air. I was doing that the other day, so aware of my surroundings. I felt like I was part of the surroundings, that I wasn’t me. I was the air I was breathing. I was looking down and I saw tiny blue flowers, maybe they’re called Bluets. Teenie, tiny. They were magnificent. There was a circle two feet wide of those flowers. They are still in my mind. They are my background screen in my mind. They are with me, tiny blue miracles, as I await the next miracle of nature.
Thank you. That was channeled so beautifully. As a scientist, I am aware of the four elements—fire, air, earth and water—that the Greeks identified at a very ancient time. Perhaps their brains were a little different than ours. It’s interesting to include love—this internal feeling—as an element and as a force in nature. It helps us get beyond those ancient brain thoughts to integrate into a new system. It is hard for me to do, but I love the idea. I love thinking about love as something that exists in the same way fire exists, the same way air exists. We can’t touch air. We can’t touch love. It’s a force that we can feel. We can sense the elements. We can sense love. So much to ponder today. And then truth is a whole other thing. I love the way we share authentic truth here from our hearts. It’s a mind-blowing thought that love is an element. It impacts us, like fire, like air.
You had a line that was awesome. “The mind is the web that we peer through to see our divine nature.” Thank you. We have to peer beyond our mind to see our divinity. Energy is a funny thing. When I expand into energy, I cannot read. I shut off my reading ability. It is an art learning to live in two worlds. I live in both. At times, they bump into each other and it’s confusing. I trust as I practice, as you practice, we’ll get better at it. Because we are opening into our world of heart-centered consciousness while living in the world of the mind. It is an interesting trek.
Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for being part of our circle. I’d like to imagine that our circle of energy is the perfect circle. That it lives and breathes as more join coming and going. We are expanding and moving with fluidity. I wish you all a fluid day moving in and out of the ups and downs and the thoughts and the truths. Be gentle with yourselves.