A Full Plate

Do you feel like you have a very full plate at the moment? With so much going on, it can be difficult to feel thankful. Things we have no control over, and dread having to face, seem to be coming into our lives at lightening speed. All of our past denial is up for healing. Life has become full of these challenges for nearly everyone who is conscious because of the times in which we are living. Things catch our breath and give us pause to wonder if there is a safe way out. Family conflicts. Marriages and relationships that are at break up or break through points. Financial challenges and spiritual questions about the future.  

In the process of facing these challenges, while the energies of light and dark continue to define themselves, and render us moment-to-moment choices, it can be very easy to get lost in what appears to be overwhelming negativity. Just listen to the election rhetoric! Without discernment, these vexing energies can seem the loudest. They seem determined to take center stage.

It seems as I grow older, my focus becomes less outward and calls me to take on a more intimate perspective. As a friend of mine says, “ I feel more of a need to “turtle in,” take cover, and try to see the things in my life that bring joy. My priorities have a more emotional hue. They arrive on my list only after reflection on what there is in life that really fulfills me. The picking and choosing of my focus, where I spend my energy, feels more important now.

The most profound moments for me are those that contain deep connection to myself and others.

They are the opportunities life gives us for a cosmic celebration and a quiet knowing smile

In the wings, these more quiet, sustainable energies of great power do not force themselves into the spot light. The quiet safety of shared decisions made from principle and path, rather than old pain are just waiting to be noticed. The spontaneous, uncontrived actions taken from an open heart are egoless, given from pure consciousness. They are found in our courage and willingness to change. They are in truths spoken out of respect for oneself or an other, in feelings of Oneness allowed — sought after. The power comes in a decision born out of the need for sheer attunement with ourselves.

We can feel it in the quiet refuge found when we release our need to change that which cannot be changed. Great power waits for us in the unbridled joy of new and old love with anyone. It’s in ethics in action or the silent gift of unspoken understanding. Its there in respect for the wisdom of our older ones and in the cherishing of the innocence of our young.

That power waits in the intense courage found in a willingness to move through fear without a loss of integrity, or a covering up of our human frailty. It’s in the undisturbed peace and balance arising from a lack of expectations and in a crescent moon perched above the silhouette of a dark mountain. You can hear it in the unadulterated joy of spontaneous laughter and see it into crimson dawn highlighted with a tapestry of purple clouds.

It’s the profound peace of letting go.

So many reminders that what is real and sacred are always available. The reality is that freedom, peace, is found in a simple change of perception or a clear decision that we are worthy of being authentic, and, at the same time, loved.

Perhaps, at this time, it all boils down to something very simple. Isn’t it true that the most profound truths are always the most simple? The one and only thing that gives me joy and creates the ecstasy is always right here.

During each day, I will take time to be with myself, look for that which is positive and with some person that I meet, I will make a difference, connect at a deep level.

That delicious joy lights the rest of my way each day and leaves those negative energy on center stage without an audience.