I’ve been wondering…what do you want to hear from your spiritual leader right now? From those you turn to, who speak not to incite fear but to inspire compassion and love. What could I say to help us stay on track, to point us toward the Divine and to give us room to consider rather than to dictate ‘the way’?
I would say the same thing now that I would have said two weeks ago, before George Floyd was murdered. I would say the same thing now that I would have said three months ago, before Covid-19 started its march. Spiritual direction doesn’t waver due to worldly conditions or circumstances. It is by its very nature foundational, applicable in all of life, the thing we can depend on, return to, find strength and solace in and use to engage in life as it stands before us…not subject to whim or fancy or grandstanding. It is true for all people all of the time.
Spiritual direction informs us of how to be in the world with a wide view and an open heart. True spiritual consciousness reveals the power of the unseen and our inextricable Oneness with all-that-is…called by many names including God, Spirit, Love, Allah, Buddha, Universal Mind. So, what would I say to you, to myself? What would I remind us? This:
There is not one soul in this world today that is separate from another. There is no ‘us and them’…there is only us. Our struggle against each other is hurting the whole of us. The lack or limitation I see in another is in me, too. The sadness, injustice, rage, inequalities, addiction, judgment and struggle are in my house, too. These vibrate and exist in waves and quarks as energies. Walls and gates are no match, neither is my tender skin.
If this is true…that we are indeed One…the message can be none other than this: Yes, you are your brother’s keeper. Yes, you are your sister’s keeper. And we are ALL brothers and sisters. Fear misguides us and leads us astray. Oneness teaches us compassion, the need for forgiveness and the power of love. Fear separates us, pits us against each other, has us scrambling to be first, to be right, to be on top. Oneness calls us to walk in all shoes, feel another’s pain and imagine their sorrow.
When we do this, over and over again, we heal ourselves and we heal the world. We heal because we change. We become enlightened. We not only know we are One but we feel it too…and we respond to the world from that place. Is there anything greater or more important for us to do? I think not.
With great love
Paula
