It’s All Grace
Dear Blessed One,
Where is Grace not? Who defines Grace?
Grace is the opportunity to be here in a body and experience Life and ALL its undulations. God does not give “unmerited favors”, or merited ones for that matter.
The conditioned mind often says, “No, not the bad things, that’s not grace!” I have seen, heard, and experienced over and over the grace of some of the most challenging life situations. My greatest growth has come from my deepest pain. Great awakenings can come from the deepest sleeps.
It all has its purpose, to shake us awake, open our hearts more fully, show us our deeper selves, and bring us home to center, where we no longer identify with the clatter of the outside world.
Come back to center and see if you can rest in that Still Point. Notice when thoughts arrive pulling at you like an incessant child. Watch how you allow the distraction to take you on a wild ride where one thought, like a fractal, opens to the ever-expanding, infinite web of thoughts or story. Rarely does resolution ever happen there; just an entanglement of conditioned ideas, old programs, and stories running, feeding itself like some obsessive, hungry creature.
Be alert and see if you can notice in the moment (or soon thereafter) that a thought has arrived. That’s the place of choice. You can use single-pointed focus on a mantra, the breath, a feeling in the body, or you can follow the rampant barrage of thoughts.
Great things happen in silence. Have you ever noticed that the most creative solutions and ideas come while the mind is at rest, perhaps in nature, meditation, or even exercise? When the mind is peaceful, we’re able to detect a more gentle Guidance, the voice of Love which is not programmed by fear. This is how wonder gets ignited, sitting in the silence of the inner world, not knowing what anything is for, watching, and waiting like a curious child.
It’s all Grace, even the most dastardly seeming things in life.
In the Nag Hammadi Library, “The Thunder, Perfect Mind” says, (http://gnosis.org/naghamm/thunder.html),
“For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a husband…”
Grace is the brave soul who comes here to be despised so that I (as God-experiencing) may experientially know that, struggle with it (because of limited human perspective), and in my particular case, come to the other side of it, more compassionate, loving, and now able to support others in their difficulties.
Be with the pain you experience, be with the joy you experience, be with the challenges and victories…just experience it all.
See if you can experience without labeling it while you wait for the miracle.
Much Love and Blessings to You,
shellee
“3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope…”
~Romans 5:3-4 KJV