NAVIGATION

This spring I took a long cross-country trip with my daughter, which introduced me to the joys of GPS navigation. I've always been a map person. I like to know where I'm headed, where I am now, and what the alternate routes are, so if something comes up I have a context in which to make informed choices.

Driving with GPS was a new experience. Punch in the destination, and it decides how to get there. It also only shows the road you're on and how far to the next intersection/turn/interchange. So driving in places I'd never been before, there was no way to know if the GPS really had an optimal route, or what, if any, alternate choices might be available. I found this really bothered me, brought up old helpless, lost feelings. My daughter, however, seemed fine with the process. She was OK knowing that she was on course, even is she didn't know what state we were in at the moment.

What it came to was that she trusts her GPS and I want the option of double checking it. So I got to practice some letting go, and in spite of a few minor glitches, and some bad temper, the GPS did guide us home safe and sound.

Scroll forward a couple of weeks. I'm doing readings at a fair. At this fair I had several readings where I could see/feel clearly where the client was being guided to go next (either externally or internally), and that they would have clarity when they got there, but not any details of what the content of that clarity was.

Thinking about this I realized there are times when life is like a treasure hunt. You are guided in a certain direction, or to a place, or person. When you get there you find the next clue, which points you to a new destination. Sometimes if you know where you are going three steps out, you might skip one, to save time, or to avoid something challenging. But then when you get those three steps out, you won't be the same, you will have missed something (possibly important) along the way. Often times it is the process of getting to where you are going that gives you the answer. This is especially true of internal journeys. Going into fear, grief, or anger almost always yields a benefit or lesson. Only by going there do you uncover it experientially, so you have the full knowing of it, not just the idea. That process is critical for your journey.

Spirit says: be here now, pay attention to the process, trust me and I'll show you the way as you go along. Something like a GPS eh? Unlike the GPS I'm at least trying to trust Spirit, though its not always easy. Often I do want a map, the bigger picture, knowledge of where I'm going long term. I believe that Spirit knows all the options and context, but the mind that had such an issue with the GPS is still learning to trust this: still learning to listen to my heart, my spiritual GPS.

This is so important, because unlike a physical GPS where we punch in our destination, spiritually we don't really know it ahead of time. Often we only know when we've gotten to where we are going because we feel it. Only in the moment, feeling into it with your own heart will you know when you are really on track, and when you have arrived. So spiritually we have to learn to navigate with the GPS of our heart, and to do that we often have to let go of the mind's discomfort with partial information. We slowly learn that we will know what we need to know, when we need to know it, not in mind, but in the heart.

And we do that by practicing, taking time to ask our heart how it feels and listen to what is there.

with gratitude to my daughter for a useful, if frustrating lesson.

(© 5/10)

EMBODYING SPIRIT

It used to be that I might occasionally visit my higher Self, or it might drop round for tea. These days my higher self is knocking at the door, and wants to move in. Perhaps you've noticed this as well, it seems to be a general phenomenon.

There have been times when I wanted to "beem up" to some other place or planet; when I felt disconnected and alone, a "stranger in a strange land", out of sync with the world around me. You probably know what I mean. These days, however, I am focused more deeply on making space for Spirit to land.

We are connected spiritual beings, existing at once on all levels between our body and Source. We have all spent time practicing raising our consciousness or awareness to go visiting with "higher" levels of our self. But then we come home again. In Mary Poppins, when they start laughing and float up to the ceiling for a tea party, only to eventually come back to Earth when serious things return, is like this. But that movie is about the ability to bring that good stuff back down with you, into everyday life, even into that most serious of places, a British bank.

Yes we can go visit, but we can also invite our higher aspects to come into the body. This is embodiment, sacred union, heaven on earth. When we have cleaned the temple sufficiently, these "higher" levels will show up. They are really always here, but we are too busy and the static is too loud. Thus many forms of mediation and other practices have developed to quite the noise on the "lower levels", so we can perceive the "higher".

Being always connected, and always present, it is not so much a matter of going or coming, but allowing, listening, integrating. We can raise our consciousness, or expand it. The former implies taking an elevator up; the later is more about becoming aware of more floors at the same time. This is a time of expansion.

It used to be your higher self knocked gently and if you were busy went away again, to wait and come back later. But something is shifting. The knocks are louder and with an insistence. The time is now, your higher self is not really taking no for an answer any more. How many people do you know that are getting the wake up call in some form?

The good news is that its easier than ever to come into a place of expanded awareness, to experience both spirit and body at the same time. We do this not by figuring it out, but by allowing it to happen. The challenges are that this may be a bit disorienting (even if you have been practicing) or that the process often kicks up a bit of dust, but this will pass. And while we may have less choice we are also not as alone.

I have been seeing more people in the last couple months who are really stepping up to integrating their higher Selves into the body. Others are actively exploring how to bring their spiritual awareness into their jobs, and their lives. It is really very exciting! It seems a broad thing, involving all of us, those of us who have been "on a path" for years, and those who are just starting out. We are moving into a time when you won't have to go to a metaphysical fair to connect with other people who are consciously living from spirit, we are everywhere. And I'm talking about Colorado Springs as well as Boulder.

We are learning to relax the analytic mind, so that our souls can connect to our hearts. Asking the mind to open up to translating from the geometry and music of Spirit, to the emotions of the heart. Unlike our conscious minds, our hearts are big enough to embody our souls. It is a beautiful thing when this connection is made and you really come home to yourself. And it is happening for all of us, right now. Whatever the reasons, it is in the air. Karpe Diem, there are more of us than we think, and Spirit has your back.

(© 5/10)