RAISING BARNS

Last fall, the day the stock market first tanked, I woke up and went on line to do my daily check-in with the rest of the world. Reading the news I could feel the part of me that worries about my financial well being wake up and prepare to be anxious. I was going to see a counselor I work with that afternoon and figured that this was a good set up to clear more old fear and re-task the part of me that worries about not being supported by the universe. As we start I've learned to always check in with myself to see what is actually present in the moment, even though I "knew" what was up. So I closed my eyes, grounded, and checked in, expecting to find anxiety.
Whoa! where did all this joy and excitement come from? Leaning into it I could feel that there was a huge positive field of energy that I was tapping into. I felt it more than once last fall, especially around the election, it is always there for us, the background love that is Spirit fed by all those who resonate with joy and hope. We just need to align and open to it. Try it now.
Last weekend I was helping a friend with a fund raiser for amazing work he does connecting kids with healthy food and experiences of growing, harvesting, preparing and eating it. Many people contributed a great deal of time and energy to creating this wonderful event: fun, filled with the Spirit my friend always works with, and centered around a positive community oriented project. It was a long evening, especially clean-up and tear-down, and I stayed late supporting my friend and moving boxes. Well after midnight someone asked why I didn't go home? I realized that I wasn't tired, I was full of energy, even though I had been doing things that normally would tire me or aggravate physical stress points, none of this had showed up.
Other people that night were also feeling connected to something larger and feeling Spirit supporting them. The community was working under the spiritual energy of this wonderful project, we were feeding that field, which in turn was supporting us as we worked late under a frosty moon. Joyful service nurtures itself.
The next night I was in a different community, supporting women graduating from a year of deep ceremonial work. I was part of a ring of masculine energy holding space for the ladies to do their last piece of work for the year. As we walked in the snow outside I could feel the energy of those physically present, of all the men who had walked that circle in other years, supporting other women, and of the spiritual forces that held the space for all of us, men
and women. Even though the night was cold this energy warmed us, and we felt our place in the larger web.
When those on the inside later expressed thanks for our service, my thought was that it was not only an honor, but something that fed and nurtured us. Service to a community acting in tune with Spirit in this way is not a hardship but a blessing. Whether the service is explicitly spiritual or more mundane, there are spiritual energies that support community and collective endeavor, that make the "work" lighter, the night warmer, the day cooler.
In past times communities had barn raisings, which must have had the same feeling. Serving community with an awareness that you are aligning with Spirit, connects you to the spiritual energy of that community, and the fields of joy and nourishing support that are woven about this world. So in these holy days, if you are feeling at all disconnected, find an event or a project to contribute to, to co-create, or to serve. Coming together with family or friends, remember that it is the coming together itself that is the source of the joy and excitement that feeds our souls and sustains our bodies.
May you experience deeply the weaving of the fabric of community that invites Spirit to enter into your life.

(© 12/09)

MEDITATION ON STARS AND ATOMS

Start this trip with the starry night sky. Remember the last time you looked at a clear sky full of stars. Have you ever tried to imagine how much space there is out there? How far apart the stars are? I doubt we really can, but its as good a feeling for spaciousness as you're likely to run into.
Here on earth we know that we are solid beings, at least much more solid than the vastness of interstellar space. Or are we?
Last week I was inspired to briefly take my astronomer's cap off the wall and play with a few numbers. If you imagine that the sun is the nucleus of an atom, how far out in the solar system would the edge of that atom be? It turns out that even the densest atom (uranium) would be several times the size of Pluto's orbit, and the most spacious atom (hydrogen) would be 15 times Pluto's orbit.
So the atoms in our body are relatively more spacious than the solar system! So we are actually full of space. Take your vision of the stars and project it inwards. Feel the expansiveness of this. Keep breathing.

Actually both "outer space" and inner space are full of stuff. Outer space has thin gases, comets and magnetic fields in it, and our atoms are "full" of electrons. You might think of these later as comets whizzing around (they are actually slightly smaller)*. In a real way there is as much or more "space" in our bodies as in the solar system. So now I thought, looking at some glorious Hubble images**, what about the galaxy?




After all there are more cells in our body than stars in the Milky Way, which is a number that is on the order of the national debt! In other words, mind numbingly large. In terms of atoms, there are actually more atoms in your body than stars in the Universe!*** but lets stick with the galaxy for now, which is something we can at least pretend we can imagine.



It turns out that the distance to the nearest star is roughly the same scale as the size of a hydrogen atom. The interstellar distance in the center of the galaxy, is similar to the size of a uranium atom. So stars in the galaxy are a reasonable analogy to the spacing of atoms in your cells.
We are back with the night sky, but as a reflection of you. Take a moment to really feel your body as a galaxy. Imagine the stars and the space. As above, so below.


There is that much space, or vacuum inside us! Space which is full of infinite energy, infinite creative potential. In quantum physics the vacuum is a sea of virtual particles popping in and out of existence very rapidly. Metaphysically the void is the gateway to consciousness and the creative potential of the universe.
Just imagine that all the physical space inside you is room for your spiritual self and Spirit to play, create, and heal. You are mostly full of consciousness and spirit! Don't think about this, just invoke it, remember an image of the galaxy and feel that inside yourself. Let the knowing of this well up from your body and your soul. Notice what arises for you in this spaciousness. Appreciate the amazing vastness and complexity of your own being, powerfully alive with life force and Spirit.
In this season of "darkness", we remember and rebirth the light. But it is right here inside each of us all the time. Happy Holidays!

*All cosmic, particle analogies are, just that. Things operate quite differently at atomic scales, but the general point about scales is not altered.
** The Galactic Core
***Deep Space Galaxies, video

(© 12/09)