Cast Adrift

 

Cast Adrift.  That's how we feel sometimes.  It's as if we don't know where we are going, or even why.  But often the soup just has to cook.  Time spent not knowing, just simmering has proven, in the past, for me, to be extremely beneficial.

The clouds of not knowing can settle down around us with a damp chill, closing in about our bodies and minds, leaving us feeling directionless, purposeless.  Sometimes, it's illness, sometimes it's financial devastation.  It can be social or environmental injustice, or simply a lack of connection with others and their support.  But if we hang in there, give it a little time, and our consideration, let the flavors, ideas and feelings meld together, our way forward gradually comes clear. 

I like to use affirmations and gratitude practices during those darker days to help me keep hope and trust alive.  All of the spiritual practices that we have learned can give us some direction.  Prayer, mantras, along with inspirational stories, poetry, music and art, these are the tools I turn to, to help me find the light ahead.

I remember years ago, while I was healing from a major injury, wondering day-after-day, why this devastating thing had happened to me.  What was to become of my life after so many changes had occurred, flipping everything I trusted and knew on its head?  I had gotten a degree in horticulture, had been running my own landscape business, had employees, had just bought a home and was planning to remodel and then everything stopped. I had to let the business go.  My financial situation shifted drastically.  I became sincerely dependent with no guarantee that I'd ever recover.

In that dim light of life, with the heat turned way down low, I simmered and grabbed what ingredients I could and tossed them into the stew pot of my days.  Meditation, dream-work, time spent musing quietly, alone with my thoughts, taking what small steps I could to help restore my peace of mind and my physicality.  It can be a slow process marinating in transformation.  The egg in the nest takes time to change and open.  The seed doesn't sprout overnight.  Dismal news can come.  We just have to let it go and keep focusing on the next one or two possible steps that we can see for the way ahead.

Peace Pilgrim used to say, "Stay in the present moment.  Do what needs to be done.  Do all of the good you can each day.  And the future will unfold."  This is a lovely prescription for finding one's way.  It has helped me greatly over the years.  It's the little steps that matter.  One at a time.  There is no rush.  It's a long life, and from my perspective, there are plenty of them.  So, we don't need to hurry.  We can take our time and go slow.

So, there I was, all those years ago, stuck in bed, doing next to nothing except visiting my chiropractor once a week, and slowly, incrementally, finding my balance again.  And that's when my empathy, my clairvoyance, my ability to see and know what was going on in the health and well being of others, started to emerge.  It certainly wasn't anything I had expected to have happen.  I had guided the ship of my life in a totally different direction.  But there it was, arising quietly and consistently from within me.  It took a process of many years to refine and smooth off the rough edges of my psychic skills.  But, as sure as the lady bug transforms from the larvae, a new me emerged.  When we trust ourselves and let our lives flow, riding the hills and valleys as gracefully as we can, our path eventually comes clear.

I remember hearing the story of a young man in Great Britain who had gotten off on 'a wrong foot,' and began his early adulthood stealing things.  He wound up in jail, got out, took on a small job that at first he didn't know how to do, but learned.  Then he found himself helping others, newly out of prison, in finding work and learning how to do those small jobs as well.  In time he had founded a nationwide service providing support for others who had walked a similar path and his purpose in life was revealed.  

We never know where these roads will take us, but if we hang in there, and do what we can to stay present and work daily to hold our heads above water, and help others whenever we can, the way before us will unfold.  We find that we were never really cast adrift, we just needed an unexpected course correction, to set us on the good and right road that was always before us.  From there we can look back, at the end of our lives, and see that the way was really always clear.  We just needed to simmer a little, let all of the ingredients meld and blend and create the true sustenance of our beings.

So, hang in there.  Trust yourself and the Universe.  Stay in the moment.  Stay the course and expect the best.  A deeper part of you already knows the way.  We just need to let it all gradually and gratefully unfold before us.

I will leave you with a little haiku-like poem that I wrote years ago.  It came to me after I awoke from a dream where I saw three of my footsteps in front of me, in a forest, in the deep snow.  Just three footprints.  On a clear bright sunny winter's day.

My feet are always falling - steadfastly - on my path before me.

© Josephine Laing 2024

 

Manifesting Joy

When it comes to manifesting joy, the trick here is that it is not really in our hands.  The manifestation of our deepest wants and needs is the soul property of the highest good for all.  Yes, we can let our desires shine to light our path.  We can mine our sub-conscious minds to clear away any lingering obstacles, and let our sincere and heartfelt feelings guide us.  We can hold our thoughts to the positive and speak out our affirmations with confidence.  But the bottom line, when it comes to finding our joy is surrender.  It is giving ourselves over in service to something greater, something beyond our own individual aspect of consciousness.  

On the inside of my closet door, so I can see it every day, I have pinned up this quote by Mahatma Gandhi.  "God demands nothing less than complete self surrender as the price of the only real freedom worth having.  And, when we lose ourselves, we immediately find ourselves in the service of all that lives.  Such service becomes our delight and recreation.  We are a new person, never weary of spending ourselves in the service of God's creation."

Now, I realize that the word 'God' is a tricky one for many.  There has been so much self-serving and irresponsible theology in the world, leaving death, doubt and destruction in its wake.  So it can be a challenge to embrace the thought of 'God.'  Because of this, the great spiritual teacher of how to heal our lives, Louise Hay, never uses the word 'God.'  She uses 'Life,' instead.  She'll say, "Life loves me."  And I think that looking upon Divinity as 'Life' is a lovely, generative alternative to what has come before.  

I also like Joseph Campbell's definition of God.  He said, "God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being.”  What he is saying here is that trying to fathom the ineffable is simply beyond our limited human capacity.  

Peace Pilgrim, who is probably my favorite spiritual teacher and perhaps our only true American Saint, also refrains from religious associations when describing or referring to 'God.'  She speaks of her own entrance into a life-well-lived by sharing how she felt moved to walk out into the woods one night, motivated by a feeling of deep seeking for a meaningful way of life.  And after she had walked almost all night, she came upon a clearing where the moonlight was shinning down and she found herself speaking aloud and she found herself saying, "If you can use me for anything, please use me."  And she found herself feeling, "Here I am, take all of me.  Use me as I am.  I withhold nothing."  And with that she felt that she had found what she was looking for.  She experienced the complete willingness, without any reservations whatsoever, to give her life to something beyond herself.  She said that from that time on her life became meaningful, because she began to live to be of service; she began to live to give instead of to get.

This is where the journey of manifesting a life of true and lasting joy begins.  And, there is still a bit of road to travel until we actually experience the complete giving over of ourselves, the surrender of our life, to the whole.  

In her experience of it, Peace said that this aspect of the journey seemed like a struggle between two parts of herself, what some might call the ego and conscience, or what many have referred to as 'my will' and 'thy will,' or what she called the low self and the high self.  The two viewpoints are quite different.  And each one of us must reconcile this difference before we step fully into a life of harmony. 

While we are working through this stage, initially we get glimpses of our life lived in union with the whole.  And as we progress, we find ourselves there more and more frequently.  Then we start to really miss that immersion in pure love, when we find that we have slipped out of it.  Finally, as we reach harmony, and as Peace says, "You will know your way from there."  

With this, we can imagine the beautiful results that we are hoping for; and we let the way to achieve them gracefully unfold.  We strive to do all the good things that we find ourselves motivated to do, to help make the world a better place.  And we find that our life is characterized by a deep seated sense of joy; and it is that joy that unerringly guides us right onto our path before us.

I find it quite miraculous really to think that there is an energy or a force, a benevolent field that is attuned to our every thought, awaiting our alignment with the whole.  And as we give ourselves over to it, more and more completely, motivated by love, we enter into the great cosmic dance of the river of life wherein we manifest whatever we need because it is completely attuned with everything.

These are not the wants and needs of the ego, trying to get ahead of others; nor is it the part of us that holds ourselves as separate, better or less than any other.  No, this is not that analytical, critical thinking part of our self that feels 'a business plan' is the way to go here, oh no.  This is the open, benevolent, expansive lover of all, that we each hold inside our hearts.  This is the part of ourselves that unquestioningly reaches out a hand to save another, knowing that at our core essence, as Joe Campbell exclaimed, "You and the other are one!"

And from my perspective, 'The One' is vast!  It includes not only all of humanity and Gaia, our planet, but also our solar system and the massive spiral arms of our galaxy swirling out into the unending space of the Universe.  I'm talking here of the fundamental consciousness, that is not only in me and in you, but that pervades everything and beyond.  This is the flow that we must tap into, (that we are already tapped into) and align with, (that we are already aligned with,) in order to really manifest what we'd like to see in our lives.  And all of this is already fully accessible within us.  All that is needed is a little shift in our perspective.  Here we embrace everything with love, even the stinkers, and those who have not yet found their way.  Here we serve all.  And, incidentally, thereby serve ourselves.

Our good intentions, our desires, our inspirations and our feelings of deep fulfillment will all point the way.  They are the compasses that help us to align.  They are the keys that open the doors to the deeper meaning of life.  But it is our surrender to our unique service in life, to our own pathway of giving, that brings us to our knees with Joy!  And here we find that the Universe has lain the road open wide before us, bountifully bedecked with everything that we truly need.


© Josephine Laing 2017

Purpose and Joy

Our true purpose in life is not a chore, it is our greatest joy.  It can also be the one thing that we hold dearest in our hearts and it might just be our greatest challenge as well.  If we don't do it, our lives feel lost.  If we do, it brings to us our heart's desire.   Joseph Campbell said we must, "Follow our bliss." And Peace Pilgrim said that we must each, "Find our calling." 

Peace further advised that if we don't already know our calling, we can seek it in reflective silence.  She said we need to, "Do all of the good things that you are motivated to do, even if they are only little good things, and to give these first priority in our day over all of the ordinary and mundane things that customarily clutter our human lives."  And it's true, so often we give all of our good energy of the day to the things that matter very little in the long run, saving what little is left at the end of the day, for our inspirations, when we are dog tired and ready for bed. 

Bronnie Ware, an Australian Nurse who worked in palliative care with the dying found that among her patients the number one death bed regret was, "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, rather than the life that others expected of me."   Our loved ones care for us; they love us; they want to keep us around and keep us safe.  Though well intentioned, they don't want us to take risks and they speak up if we do.  Ram Dass tells a funny story about his parents.  He said they made it very clear to him that he should: achieve, be responsible, be successful, bring pride to them, stay healthy, and if he accomplished all of that, then he should be happy as well.  But this is not a recipe for an authentic life.  This is a recipe for a life lived according to the plans of others.

Howard Thurman said, “Don't ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  And when we ask, we engage the great spiritual law of asking and receiving.  This will then guide us into our truest life well lived. 

Following our heart's desire is like a love letter of gratitude to the Universe for our lives.  I've heard it said that the foundation of our spirituality is to be appreciative of the gift of life.  To have fun.  To play.  To laugh.  To see our lives as a piece of God."  So, I like to say, "Stay in your joy!"  It is the surest compass there is for a life well lived.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Beauty and the Death Experience

As difficult as death is, there can be beauty int the experience as well.  Close brushes with death teach us to live our lives more fully.  And the time we spend transitioning in and out of spirit is like coming home again.  Join Josephine as she brings this topic to life for half and hour.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

All Is Well, Happiness, and Joy

Peace Pilgrim once said, "Who could know God and not be joyous?"  When we overcome the illusion of our separation from the divine we find ourselves in joyous contact with the Ultimate Reality from which we spring. This connection frees us from any misunderstanding we might have about ourselves and the nature of life. It allows us to experience joy.  

I first discovered a sense of the divine during my early teenage years when I was with my horse Duchess.  I reveled in the beauty of the natural world, admiring the energy of the trees, the soil, and the air surrounding us.  We can experience this feeling of reverence whenever we are in contact with nature.  

For me the divine is free from association with religion.  It is the ultimate source of the universe and of consciousness.  I like to think of the ultimate mystery as God and that God is the mystery of pure love.  It is the totality of everything.  The illusion of our separation from the divine is the cause of all of our suffering. This is what robs us of our joy. 

Though happiness and joy may seem pretty similar, they are actually quite distinct.  Happiness is an externally based form of pleasure.  We become happy when someone gives us a present or a compliment, or when we find ourselves in a lovely environment.  We take a ride at an amusement park and we laugh. 

On the other hand, joy percolates up from deep within ourselves.  Joy is linked to our sense of "All is Well."  No matter what, we know the rightness of everything.  We feel this way when we are doing what we truly want to do, when we follow our inspirations, when we open our hearts in love.

Everything is a part of the totality and when we know that we are learning and growing, a sense of well-being pervades our every experience.  Years ago a friend of mine shared with me a saying that really knocked my socks off when I first heard it.  "Gratitude is my only reaction."  I see now how very profound this idea is. 

One beautiful way to reconnect with our joy is to take a moment to stop and think, how many times have you brought to your awareness that great mystery, that deep love, that ultimate source of creation?  Have you seen it in the eyes of another?  Have you felt it in the breeze in your hair?  Did you feel it in the sun from the window as it warmed your hand? 

I invite you this week to see how many times a day we can reach for that joy.  Find that connection with something larger than ourselves and just surrender ourselves to it.  Allowing it to cause that deep joy of connectedness, percolating up from the very roots of our being.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014